Matrix REBOOOTED
by NeoAgent
Summary: The Matrix still has them. The hostilities are over. Morpheus, however, has been relegated to the dust bin of history. Or has he?


Matrix Rebooted

By NeoAgent

Part I

What was once forgotten…

Chapter 1

Dreams

The sky was subtly and oddly different. After all, this was the new Matrix. It all changed after the end of the great war. There was no way that the citizens of this world would ever know the real reason for the change, but changed it was.

In reality, it was the insertion of Neo into the mainframe that had inexorably changed the base code.

The change was obvious to Morpheus in a multitude of subtle ways, but the most obvious was the minute hue shift in the color of the sky. Morpheus always wondered if the mindless drones still immersed in the Matrix even noticed the change of hue.

He doubted it.

That color change paled in comparison to the peace that was ushered in. There were many theories of how Neo and Trinity did it, but no one knew for sure. Against all odds, they had forged a peace with the machines. Their victory was also their sacrifice, as they never returned to Zion.

The peace was not a victory, but it also was not surrender. The loss of Trinity and Neo created a palpable mourning in Zion. It hung in the air. But, most importantly, there still was a Zion. That was miracle enough to celebrate.

Pax Neo. That is what the people of Zion were calling it. Here in the Matrix, life continued unabated and unaware of the war that had been waged, and nearly lost. Life continued there in the Matrix just as it always had, and always would.

Morpheus looked down at his hands. His residual self-image in the Matrix allowed for a sense of immortality, even though his body back in the Real felt all of the twenty years that had passed. He took a deep breath and forced these thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind. Hesitation for reflection was something he could not afford back here in the Matrix.

It was time.

He attached his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose and jumped on to his motorcycle. Revving the engine, he could smell the exhaust. He quickly added to this the smell of burnt rubber as he pushed the throttle and accelerated down the road.

Driving on the interstate used to be a "never event" for those warriors of Zion inserted into the Matrix. No longer. He casually merged onto the interstate. The Pax had changed things from threat of constant assault to conscious indifference from the machine gatekeepers. The agents were still there but they tolerated the inserted insurgents these days. There were new rules in this Pax. As long as these rules were not disrupted, catastrophe could be avoided.

Anyone would be crazy to push these rules and threaten the Pax.

But here was Morpheus. He knew it was a mistake to be there. It was now forbidden for him, wasn't it? Especially for him. The Pax was quite explicit.

If only they knew of his nefarious purpose.

She had called to him. It was a simple enough message, but one he knew was meant for him.

Temet nosce. The oracle had once changed his life and gave it purpose. He was going to find her. He knew it. But that was weeks ago. Nothing in the Matrix was ever easy. This was not new to him. And she was calling to him. He had no choice to come, did he?

But he had been banned from the Matrix for years now.

Why was he there? Temet nosce.

Thine own-self you must know.

This was once hanging in the Oracle's kitchen. It was always there, floating in the back of his mind. Back when he was told about his purpose. He was to bring Neo to see her. He also had read that old Latin phrase, just as Neo had. It was distinctively Oracle.

The elegant way of how she messaged him was not lost on him. How she did it, he did not know.

When he arrived back in the Matrix, it was there pinned inside his trench coat. It was not like his coat was left hanging in some closet somewhere, as it essentially was part of his residual self-image on arriving back in the Matrix. But, nevertheless, when he emerged back in the Matrix, it was there.

Temet nosce.

It was so much like a dream, he had trouble grasping if this was real or fragments of flashback dreams. The issue that tugged at his mind was that he had entered the matrix completely and utterly undetected. Undetected from the mainframe. Undetected by his own very council. Undetected from himself. It pulled harder and harder at his consciousness until…

Morpheus awoke in a start, sweating profusely, and with the same splitting headache that always accompanied this dream. He felt drained. The sleep was more elusive than ever before.

The dreams were coming more frequently now. Relentlessly calling to him, he never really slept anymore.

Where was the rest for an old man? He shook his head shaking the cobwebs from his consciousness. It was taking a toll on him. He could feel it. Those around him could see it. It was as though his life was being siphoned off and there was no relief.

He splashed some of his rationed water on his face. Wiping up and over his shaved head, he collected the water and splashed it back in the sink. Gazing into the oxidized mirror at his shadowy reflection. He was dying. Or he was going insane. In Zion, that was one in the same.

The dreams started several months prior. As was true with most dreams, he was utterly convinced that he was in the Matrix again, until, of course, he woke up, far from any semblance of an immersion chair.

The immersion chair was designed generations ago and required a close enough signal so that a mind could be jacked into the Matrix. He knew them well, as he used them routinely in the great war to enter the Matrix to first find Neo, and then to convince him that he was indeed the One.

It had always been taught that Zion was positioned too deep for any meaningful interaction with the Matrix. That is why he knew it was a dream.

In some ways, it was a pleasant memory. It was a way for him to remember, if ever so briefly, the glory of his role in the Matrix. Especially since he was now forbidden to ever set foot in the Matrix. After Pax Neo, he had been "asked" by the council to never reenter the matrix for fear that the Pax would be fractured.

Peace, albeit not joyous, was better than the continued threat of complete annihilation by the machines. So, day in, day out, Morpheus toiled doing whatever his assignment was for that day as scheduled by the council's underlings. His skillset had been limited back in Zion. Morpheus' gifts were not in the mundane real world tasks, but the simulated. He was truly destined to rule the simulated creation of the machines, not the skills of the Real.

He pried open his door and walked out onto the walkway that looked down on the innumerable other habitats. The lights were dimmed denoting to all that this was still night at least in this sector. When the designated morning time was reached, the lights would unceremoniously turn back on at their full power. This light's spectrum was designed to emulate sunlight to help prevent any photonic induced mood disorders.

On the other side of Zion, the time was flipped. As there was no sun, it made little difference what was day and what was night. In this way, the city was run as efficiently as possible. This city was always running at full power but rarely was the populace together for any long period of time. In fact, the last time they were all congregated together, they were celebrating the retreat of the machines after Neo's victory.

The lights conveyed the sense of the start of a new day. A new morning.

What an odd idea for this free remnant of humanity. Would man ever again see the sun rise? The human designed and created monsters of terror ruled the surface under the scorched sky.

Even if humanity was to return to the surface of their planet, what would be the purpose? How long would the scorched sky persist?

He looked about himself at the city of Zion. Zion was their last hope and their greatest failure. He looked up and round at this deep hole people called a city. It was not a city. Not really. He knew it was not their home.

It was not the promised land that the name denoted.

It was in fact a prison in the depths of the earth.

Ancient man imagined that hell was where the fallen were sent to live out eternity in anguish and pain. Morpheus now realized how right they were.

Chapter Two

Sewer

Morpheus was in the glorious dark light orange jumpsuit of a sanitation worker. Only yesterday, he was scaling the scaffolding of the dome replacing the burned-out lights that invariable failed from time to time. The day prior he was working in the kitchen aiding those providing sustenance to the masses. It was ironic. In a matter of three days, his work in Zion had come full circle. From funneling nutrients into those citizens of Zion to funneling their remains back into the nutrient recycler for the whole process to start over again.

Removing his jumpsuit for his requisite break, he scrubbed his hands and stepped back into the bustling city street. He had to admit it, he missed people. Stepping out into the throng, he took a deep breath as he absorbed the humanity bustling all around him. He closed eyes as he felt the synthetic sunlight on his face.

Then…

"Morpheus!" a voice screamed from all directions. He looked around. He was no longer in Zion. Instead he was in a large pre-Millennial city. His sunglasses were in position on his nose. He shrugged his shoulders and could feel his trench coat. He panned the world searching for the one that had yelled his name. He thought he recognized the voice…

"Morpheus!" He heard it all around him again. Yes. He recognized the voice… how could he forget her voice? He smiled. He knew the Oracle was somewhere close.

He turned around and saw a shadow dart between two buildings.

"Hey!" he yelled as he sprinted toward the figure.

The target of his attention was as shocked as he was when he realized it was not the Oracle, but a young girl.

He surprised her by rounding the corner of the alleyway. He was too close for her comfort and he realized this just as he slowed to a stop in front of her.

"I am sorry, I thought you were someone else." She was toiling under the weight of her book bag over her shoulder. He imagined she was on her way to school.

"Did you hear that?" he asked

The girl turned to look at him. Her eyes… "Heard what, mister?"

"That voice. It called my name."

"No, sir, I didn't hear anyone but you."

"Are you sure? It called my name, clear as day." He could not help but stare at her face. Her eyes. They looked so familiar.

She shrugged in response.

"I am sorry to have bothered you." He laughed a bit under his breath. "Are you sure you did not hear a voice or something?"

"Nope. Sorry. I hope you find him," she said as she turned and continued her journey.

Morpheus looked up and down the street. He looked up the sides of the surrounding buildings. There was no one except this little girl. This girl that he felt like he already knew. He was sure of it. But who was she?

Trusting his gut instinct, he called a name that had not been spoken for years.

"Trinity!"

She stopped. As if something was pulling at her mind. She slowly started to turn toward him. Their eyes locked.

"Morpheus… Morpheus… wake up!" Suddenly he was back in Zion. A guard was grabbing him by his shoulder shaking him back to reality. This guard was flanked by two others with their firearms visible.

"What… what is going on?"

"Ha. Acting like you couldn't hear us. Typical Morpheus. We need to have a talk. You are in some serious trouble. The council wants to see you."

"The council? I haven't been summoned for… hell, I can't even remember."

"Shut up, if you know what is good for you. You will have a lot to answer to, soon enough." Wrist restraints were fastened keeping his hands in front of him.

"Are these really necessary? What do you expect me to do?"

"Orders. You obviously can't be trusted."

"What the hell?"

Yes, he had been insubordinate in his day. But those days had long since passed. He was still strong and, in theory, capable of overpowering these guards, but why would he do that? Where would he go?

Although not overtly manhandled, he was led with a purpose. Morpheus was led to the anteroom of the council chambers. He was deposited there as all but one of the guards left to inform their superiors to Morpheus' arrival.

Morpheus looked down at his two open hands. His well-worn palms belied his life of manual labor.

Did he just have a seizure? Never before had he had a dream while he was otherwise awake. He had just called the name of one his closest dead friends, and he directed it to a schoolgirl. In a dream. Or was it a hallucination?

The guilt of Trinity's death weighed on his conscience.

He was her leader, wasn't he? Is that what was happening to him?

Was he undergoing a reckoning for his failings? Tank, Apoc, Mouse, Switch, Dozer. Trinity. Neo. How many others had he led to their deaths? It was inevitable, he figured. He really should have expected it. How much loss could he bear before he would break?

Now he was hallucinating about one of his lost comrades. And he did not see Trinity. Not really. He imagined her as a child. Was he to continue this for the rest of his life, visiting with his lost soldiers as children?

He was now sure he was going insane. Shaking his head, he corrected himself. There was no "going." He was well on his way.

If he was hallucinating, it meant only one thing.

Those of Zion that reentered the Matrix showed one late term effect of devolving into insanity in their later years. The physicians of Zion termed this Post-Immersion Psychosis. This terminal condition was never reversible.

The only treatment was termination.

Those with conditions that did not allow them to be fruitful members of Zion were relegated to compassionate euthanasia. The reasoning of this thinking was simple: There was no room for a non-productive member using up limited resources. Cold. Calculating. But it was also true.

Zion did not have the luxury of compassion for the debilitated.

"They will see you now."

Did they know?

Morpheus used his bound hands to push himself up out of the worn-out couch. The spring had long lost its resilience, but it was still functional. As he stood upright, hearing his bones and joints creak under his change of position, he was bathed in the bright lights of the council chamber as the double doors were opened in unison. The light forced his eyes to painfully adjust against the relatively dim waiting room.

"Morpheus, please have a seat."

He was not normally a man willing to sit in front of the council, but this time it was different. He was older and tired. Better to sit than collapse.

"Do you know why you are here?" the new President of the council asked with boring eyes.

"No, ma'am. I do not."

"Anyone in front of the council is under oath to be truthful. You do remember this, don't' you?"

"Of course. Why would I lie? Have I ever been dishonest to you?"

"Dishonest, no. Disobedient, yes."

"Thankfully."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"If it was not for my disobedience we would not be living in this peace."

His inquisitor paused. She knew better than anyone what he was alluding to. Her ascent in the upper echelons of political leadership of Zion were accelerated by her standing in unison with Morpheus in the great war.

As they raced down the mechanical line back to Zion, she was his pilot while he was the navigator. This was after she handed one of the last two hover ships to Trinity and Neo on their fool's errand. It turned out that this gamble paid off.

The peace offered to those remaining in Zion was one that was hard fought. Although the machines never specifically answered the Council's queries about Neo and Trinity's final moments, they did acknowledge their sacrifice as the reason for the new terms of peace.

The peace was simple. Humanity could survive if they agreed to not disrupt the Matrix. Those seeking the red pill could be extracted from the façade of reality and Zion could rebuild. That was about all that they would comment on.

In creating new paths forward, certain sentient programs in the Matrix offered advice on maintaining the peace. Morpheus' forays into the Matrix were first quietly discouraged. Apparently, the memory of his prior foes ran deep. The Merovingian was one such entity. Then, Lock had made it known to all in the leadership of Zion that the risks of Morpheus reentering the Matrix were too great to ever allow again.

The council president paused and considered this man that she once loved.

He looked tired. After the war, he was a changed man. It was as though he could not let his past go. He missed them. Neo. Trinity.

They were not only his friends, they were his purpose of being. He began his search for them early in the Pax as he did not like the vague answers he was given. His inability to find the Oracle did not help matters. That was before he was banned.

"You disobeyed a direct order. You reentered the Matrix. You know what this means, don't you?" President Niobe declared.

"Are you seriously accusing me of reentering the Matrix? How? I have no ship. I have no ways of jacking in. What kind of trumped up charge is this? There is no way I could reenter the Matrix, even if I wanted to."

With that, she nodded to another of the council.

There, for all to see, was a hazy pixelated image on the screen. They zoomed in the image, and even he had to admit it looked much like him. He was unsure what was happening, but he knew no one had touched his head port for years.

"So, you have record of me jacking in? You have a terminal ID?"

"No. We don't. We don't know how you did it, or which terminal chair you used, but we have evidence of you in the Matrix. We have several similar video files of you. The most recent was last night. Been riding your cycle on any interstates recently?"

This caught Morpheus of guard. He hoped it didn't show. "As I just told you, I have not jacked into the Matrix. Grainy images do not prove anything. And when would I have time to do this? You have me working every random task that needs to be done…"

"You know why you were assigned to the float crew, don't you? Your established skill set is not an immediate need right now."

"So you allocated your soldier, who you trained extensively, to the scrap heap. It is not my fault that I have no other useful favored skill."

She growled. "This is not why you are here. We have evidence, and witnesses, that show that you are in the Matrix. Routinely. We have word that you have been asking around for the Oracle. We cannot risk losing the peace, Morpheus. You of all people should understand this."

"As I told you…"

"Enough. Enough. I don't know how you did it, or are doing it, but it must stop. It is explicitly forbidden to hack the Matrix except via Zion approved terminals. And those terminals only can be used when you are in range of the surface. Let me make this clear. Not only do we know, they know as well. They know you have been back."

He leaned forward in his chair, with his hands still in cuffs. "Come on Niobe, you know me. Why would I risk losing all we have fought so hard to achieve? After the sacrifices of Neo, Trinity, and so many others?"

"So you have come to terms with their deaths?"

"Yes. It is the only thing that makes sense." Morpheus always held out hope for their reappearance, but he was also a realist. It had been years.

"Enough of this. Get on with it Niobe." It was Lock. She was the new President of the Council, but he had once sought the post not long ago.

It was finally his time to claim victory over Morpheus. He had for far too long been a thorn in his side. Lock did not forgive easily, and he remembered when Morpheus tore Niobe from him in the Great Victory over the machines. She publicly put her lot with Morpheus, and this embarrassed him in front of Zion's leadership. He did not like being embarrassed. "You know what we need to do."

Niobe's head dropped for a moment, and then rose again looking at Morpheus. A moment of pity passed over Niobe's face but it was only a moment. Then, she was all business again.

"Morpheus you are now remanded to the custody of the marshals as we prepare you for trial. Your time in the Matrix is over. Your life is now in the balance. You are being charged with treason." She paused. "I am sorry, Morpheus. I truly am."

"Guards. Take this man from my site," Lock declared. Three from the side of the council chambers walked up to the once great man. Showing some deference to him despite the crime he was being accused, they allowed him to rise from his chair. His gaze met that of Lock. All he got in return was a look of satisfaction of a man who had finally won.

Chapter Three

Dungeon

Niobe had one thought in her mind as she made her way back to her quarters after the arrest of her one true love: How could the information of a secure council meeting be so rapidly disseminated to the entirety of Zion?

The hushed tones that greeted Niobe as she made her way back to her quarters were deafening. The murmurs echoed all around her. The collective whispers seemed to carry farther than their full voice.

The whispers all seemed to ask the same questions.

"What had they done?"

"They jailed Morpheus?"

"What were they thinking?"

She answered them with her own doubt. "Indeed, what were they thinking?"

The law was the law, wasn't it?

Even Morpheus had to recognize his place in the order of things. She pried open her creaking metal door retreating to her quarters, gladly escaping the inquisitive eyes of her neighbors. Yes, she was the President, but she was also one of the human refugees in this deep hollowed out city.

It was well established protocol that no matter one's station in the hierarchy of this place, they were all also equal. Her place was not much, but it was hers and she made the best of it. It was also well ordered, which should have been expected from any prior hovership's captain.

She deposited herself on the couch. The lighting was low, fitting her mood. Although she had not had dinner, she wasn't hungry. Her rations were far from a culinary delight. She closed her eyes. The hum of the air circulator lulled her mind as her thoughts drifted to Morpheus.

She struggled to imagine where Morpheus was at the moment. It was hard for her as she had never personally visited the holding cells deep in the old part of Zion that functioned as a jail. She had never had the need.

There weren't prisons in Zion. There wasn't room. If there was to be a significant punishment it meant one of two things: immediate termination or something similar. The second option was essentially a working execution as it meant certain death. These unfortunate souls were condemned to work in the deepest recesses of the homeostasis machinery meant to keep Zion viable. Much of the workings of these machines were self-maintaining, but just like any machine, they all eventually needed some maintenance work done by man.

Cleaning up the necessary gears, lines, and fueling apparatuses was a high-risk endeavor as the machines tended to restart working with only a moment's notice. No one survived long in this section of Zion. Well, all except AK. After the war, this one strong hovership warrior exiled himself to the depths. He just had difficulty re-assimilating after the war despite the efforts of his fellow war veterans.

It had been years since she had seen AK and she often wondered if he was still alive.

Her mind drifted again to her love of so many years ago. Morpheus. She said to the silence of her habitat "Why didn't you just comply with the Council's decree? Why did you have to go back in?" The one point of all this that still baffled her was how he was able to jack back into the Matrix.

"How did you get back in, Morpheus?" Did he have an immersion chair somewhere?

When she became President, she learned the well-guarded secret that had been hidden (rightfully so) for generations. The broadcast depth to gain access to the Matrix did reach Zion.

The reason they kept this under wraps was simple. Too many people would attempt to enter the Matrix for their own purposes, and this would cause immense chaos for this city. People would naturally want to recklessly rescue their loved ones still trapped in the Matrix. Revealing the truth to an unprepared soul was like shooting them in the head. She had seen it happen all too many times.

That was the greatest concern that was raised about freeing Neo, so many years ago by Morpheus.

Morpheus. Morpheus! "What are they doing to you?" It hit her in her gut. She tried to hide the truth from all, including herself, that she still loved him. She always had.

She shook her eyes open. She knew what she had to do but had no way of doing it.

First, she had to figure out who was that in the Matrix, masquerading as Morpheus. If that was not what was happening, then Morpheus was being framed. She trusted him when he said he was not jacking in.

But what if he was? Then, she had to figure out how he was entering the Matrix. This was important on many fronts, but also was imperative if Zion was to survive. If he could do it, others could too. If others entered the realm, there was a good bet they would screw up the entire peace that so many had died trying to ensure.

He shuffled into the holding area. It was deep in the bowels of the Matrix. He was being processed like any offender of the law of Zion. He knew justice in Zion was swift. He had mere hours until his trial. In Zion, there was little defense that could be offered as the evidence was always irrefutable given the redundant surveillance systems that permeated nearly all human work zones. In other words, he was guilty already. The trial was merely a formality.

The only areas off limit to the prying eyes of the surveillance system of Zion were the living quarters. It was hard to imagine it, but Zion had its share of crime. That being said, there were no repeat offenders as the punishment was nearly absolute. This, for obvious reasons, facilitated a more docile populace.

He was read the protocol for his detention and the process of his trial. He was commanded to change out of his current clothes into a brightly colored jumpsuit that surprisingly resembled his attire he donned to work in the city's sewer system. After he changed, he was escorted to his cell.

The smell in this area was a damp and stale assault on his senses. He could feel the humidity of the air as he imagined the source of the foul smells that found their way to the area. They were near the air handling station of this compact city. All of the city's air was funneled right by them en route to the massive air handlers that sent fresh air back up to the surface. This zone was essentially shut off from the rest of Zion, meaning it only had enough filtration to keep the air breathable.

The room vibrated from the nearby work of these massive machines, offering a constant muffled noise that belied the sheer volume of air moving nearby them.

Looking around, it was clearly bereft of significant filtration vents. This made this area an excellent location for holding the undesirables of Zion as there was little to no way out other than by the door they came in by.

Pungent stagnant air was everywhere. It was so thick, he could imagine it permeating everything that passed through these rooms. Flashing back to his interrogation at the hands of the Agents, he now understood what disgusted Agent Smith about the stench from human civilization.

Yes, Morpheus had been detained before, hadn't he? He doubted Neo and Trinity would be running into save the day this time. At least these human guards had released his wrist restraints so he could eat.

He was given the same slop that he ate in the "free" world. It was not like they had many options for sustenance in this last city of man. As he sat in his cell, he tried to put his mind around where he was and how he got there. He had always expected to eventually end up here, but that was because of his history of obstinance with the Council. That was when he was a hovership's captain, not as a drone worker in Zion.

To be accused of a crime he did not commit, infuriated him. Either he was going to be one of the rare ones to be exonerated of these charges, or…

Most likely…

They had irrefutable evidence that he truly was entering the Matrix. Obviously fabricated, but evidence, nonetheless.

Was he innocent? No. Innocent of this crime? Yes.

He sat back, wiping his lip clean of the remnants of his semisolid liquid dinner. Something was not right about this whole thing. The image they had of him was very familiar to him. It seemed that they caught a screenshot from one of his dreams. Was that even possible?

If he was there, sure, any of the "traffic cameras" could have captured his intrusion back into the Matrix. Most of the souls in the Matrix could not envision the degree their lives were being monitored by these cameras. These could be hacked by the humans in the Real just as easily as the Matrix was hacked, so, it was possible that if he was there, they could capture evidence of him.

But how was that even possible?

His mind hurt as his vision pulsed with each contraction of his heart. His anxiety rose with his blood pressure as his mind yearned for an answer. Taking deep breaths, he looked to the floor, trying anything to calm himself. Drawing a deep breath, he closed his eyes. He focused his mind. Flashes from his memory came back to him. Images of Neo. Images of Trinity. Images from the battles he waged inside the Matrix.

Just as crisply, he remembered his recent dreams. The ride down the elevated interstate, dodging traffic as he went… the Oracle's voice. The little girl. Her eyes…

Then it hit him.

These dreams… they were too vivid to be dreams. It was as though he lived them inside the Matrix.

That was impossible. Or was it? His mind screamed against irrationality. It screamed against the futility. It screamed against his fatigue. When was the last time he had slept? He was sure of one thing. Either he had entered the Matrix, or he was going insane. And insanity meant only one thing.

He raised his gaze looking up at the ceiling. But entering the Matrix without an immersion was impossible. There was no other way in.

Struggling up from his chair, he made his way to the bunk. As he laid down, he realized the bed was surprisingly more comfortable than the one in his habitat.

Repositioning his head on the thick pillow, he closed his eyes. In moments, he was asleep.

He awoke with a start. How long had he been asleep? It felt like days. Next to his bed were two meal trays.

"Guard? Guard!" he said as he sprang from his bunk. He hammered on the steel door. "Guard!"

It took a moment or two, but he heard a voice answer back "Yes?" the guard said opening the slit of the door.

"How long… how long was I asleep?"

"I'll be honest with you. I had to check your pulse. I was worried you died in there. It has been a full 24 hours."

"What do you mean?"

"You slept right through your lunch and dinner. By the way, I don't think you are going to want those trays. I am sure they are growing all sorts of bacterial nastiness by now."

Morpheus sat back on his bunk, rubbing his head. He felt like he had just caught up on weeks of sleep.

"When is the trial?"

"You didn't miss much. They had to delay it a bit. Apparently, the citizens of Zion did not take kindly to your being arrested. I believe, however, we have some movement on this. Between you and me, I hope we get you cleared of whatever sin you have committed and get you out of here. I have always been a big fan, sir."

"Thank you. I hope you are right, and I get out of here soon. I am not too hopeful, though." He was glad that someone still seemed to care. For the past few years, he knew people recognized him, but they did not really interact with him. It was as though he was untouchable.

His alternating job assignments were not easy on his old frame either. He had ultimately found out the truth, and that was the ex-Councilman Lock was the puppeteer behind his varied and chaotic work schedule.

"We are far from a democracy, but the people of Zion have spoken. It has rattled the council a good bit. Let's just say there may be a change of leadership if this does not turn around soon."

"What are they doing?"

"It isn't what they are doing. It is what they aren't doing. The entire city has stopped. Everyone."

"What are they asking for?"

"Well some folks have spoken up and their demands are simple. They know that the council is required to do what they think is right, and they are okay with that. Rules are rules, but they ask that this time your trial be open to everyone. The public is still unaware of what you are being charged with.

"There has been discord for quite some time about the relative secrecy of the judgments handed down on the citizens of Zion. If they get what they want, yours might be the first broadcasted trial ever."

"Not sure if that is a good or bad thing."

"Your bet is as good as mine, but I would feel humbled by their collective voice."

"Yes. You are right. Thank you."

"You have a preliminary hearing in an hour. I was about to wake you up anyways. You may want to try to clean up a bit before you go up there." Looking at his head, he smiled. "You have bed head," he said as he slid the shutter closed.

Broadcasted trial? That had never happened before. Well as far as he could remember.

Chapter Four

Justice

"So, Lock, you finally have your ounce of flesh from Morpheus," Niobe said as she straightened her top. "But how far are you willing to take this?"

"He is guilty Niobe. We have evidence of it. He must be punished."

"But he is Morpheus, Lock. You can't just kill him. He is the hero of the great war."

It was evident that this truth wounded Lock. He had fought valiantly, as well. Although, this was not what Zion revered. They revered Morpheus. And for that, Lock meant to make Morpheus suffer. "The law is the law, Niobe. You as the president know this more fully than anyone else."

She nodded in defeat as she took a deep breath. "Yes, I do." And with this, she pushed open the doors to the waiting throng of Zion's citizens. Keeping her head up, she hoped to avoid betraying her true allegiances in this trial. The throng seemed to press into them from all directions as they made their way to the makeshift courtroom: To condemn of all people, her love, Morpheus.

The guard unlocked and reentered Morpheus' cell. Quietly and reverently he placed the restraints back on his wrists and ankles.

He then led him to a different room, this time in the administrative complex of Zion. As he entered this room, he could not believe it was possible that the lights were brighter than they were in the council chambers. They were truly the brightest lights he had ever experienced. Morpheus could feel his retinas strain under the torrent of photons that were being broadcast through his pupils. The slight hum of his headache was slowly returning.

"Why do my eyes hurt?" Neo had asked in the belly of the Nebuchadnezzar. He remembered his answer to him.

"Because you have never used them."

As he causally panned his new confines, he noted something odd. This room had no shortage of round windows that looked down over the central streets of Zion. Even from his seat in the middle of this courtroom, he could see Zion's numerous streets radiate from this focal point. Streets. If you could call them streets. They were nothing more or less than passageways between habitation towers.

Cities had an odd ability to take something manmade and create something with an ordered beauty.

For some reason he was seated in the center of the room. There were no prosecutor or defense tables here. The reason was clear: There was to be no defense maneuvering or modifications to the preordained order of his trial. This belied the true agenda of this "trial." It was meant to offer judgment and not justice.

Kneeling down, the guard removed his wrist restraints while leaving his ankle restraints. The appearance of a restrained and powerless Morpheus would not make for good theater for the populace witnessing this trial.

Lock strode into the room. The room began to fill in with both current and prior serving council members. In a way, Morpheus was humbled by the show of so many people of power in Zion. In another way he could not help to be intimidated. Their presence was only meant to offer needed credibility to the inevitable guilty verdict.

Prayer was an outdated habit for a God long lost and forgotten. Regardless, he had need to do just that. There was a very slim populace that still held to their faith and they still practiced it, although only in the shadows of Zion. They were the descendants of the original founders of this last human city and this was best recorded in its chosen name.

He was such a young boy when one of the elders of his housing unit explained the historical significance of the chosen name of this city. A dusty book was extracted from a pile of other memorabilia. He imagined it meant much more to the original owner than to the current one, but it was still a valuable artifact. It was something tangible in a world now run by the Matrix and the machines.

There, in the fragile pages, were stories of redemption, promise, and grace. It also told of a place where God's promises for humans would be finally made clear and eternal. That is what Morpheus thought the founders of Zion hoped for. Unfortunately, this place seemed more like hell than the promised land.

More of a surrender to the will of the almighty than a true prayer, Morpheus closed his eyes and bowed his head ever so slightly.

As he did this, a familiar buzz hit his cortex.

As though he stood at the edge of the Jump simulation's building, he felt as though he could fly.

"Morpheus!" Again, someone called his name, and this someone sounded just like the Oracle.

"All rise!" He snapped back to reality as Niobe entered the room. He struggled to stand against the restraints of his legs to the chair. His mind suddenly cleared as he looked at his one and only love, Niobe. Now the President of Zion and the final determiner of his fate. Somehow, he felt empathy for her. She did not deserve to be the one that had to make this judgment.

She cleared her throat. Looking directly at him she looked deep into his eyes. Then she looked at the cameras that were positioned all around them. "All come to order. You may be seated."

She again cleared her throat. "People of this court, the council, and the citizens of Zion, we have a concerning matter before us that must be fairly and thoroughly adjudicated. Morpheus?"

"Yes, Madame President."

"You may be seated."

She likewise took her seat. She absentmindedly looked at the palms of her hands before looking back at the camera. "As I am sure you have been made aware, we sit here in unusual circumstances trying an unusual defendant." She cleared her throat and took a drink of water. "Morpheus. Great Captain and leader that brought upon us the Pax Neo…" He took note of that last word. Morpheus knew that there were those in power that hated that Neo was given the main credit for saving Zion. "… but laws are laws and the Council's decrees are not to be ignored.

"As all are aware, the Pax was founded on several tenuous rules and assumptions. Some were made clear and some were strongly implied. I would love to say that we would have a fighting chance if the Pax ended tomorrow, but we are in no position to risk the Pax. The very future of humanity literally weighs in the balance."

The defiant Morpheus of old interrupted her. "Yes, Madam President, but what have I been accused? Who says that these rules were broken? I am just an old man living out my life in Zion. I have no interest in disrupting the Pax anymore, than…"

"Enough!" It was Lock's turn to take the floor. He waved to the cameras that seemed to cover every square inch of the courtroom. "The purpose of these cameras is to show Zion how these proceedings are carried out. This is not an avenue for you to spew any unfounded rhetoric. Rest assured, your time to answer the evidence is to come. Understand that if you show contempt of this court, this will result in immediate termination of this trial while proceeding directly to the sentencing phase."

At that moment Morpheus caught a sideways look from Niobe to Lock that said volumes. There was a silence that was deafening. Yes, Lock had spoken truth to the court. Yes, as Lock full well knew as being a prior ranking member of the Council, what he stated was accurate. What he was not, however, was the President. In his correction of Morpheus, Lock committed the same sin that Morpheus was being corrected for. This was not lost on the courtroom's occupants and the rest of Zion watching the trial.

Without a word, Lock immediately added "My apologies Madam President."

Niobe took a deep breath and redirected the courtroom. "Ex-councilman Lock, speaks truth, although not in the correct protocol. We have order in this setting for obvious reasons. No one should interrupt the proceedings without due process. This includes the defendant.

"Acknowledged, Madam President," Morpheus added. "I apologize as well."

"Peace. That is what we seek here. Peace and Justice. One cannot exist without at least the promise of the other." She collected her thoughts. "To be pointed, Morpheus, you have been caught entering the Matrix without authorization. In fact, you have been explicitly told to not, under any circumstances, enter the Matrix. I believe three of the current Council members were present in the meeting we had with you five and a half years ago. This meeting had one purpose, did it not? It was to unequivocally and irrevocably ban you from the Matrix. Was this clear to you, Captain?"

"Indeed."

"So why did you directly disobey our order?"

"I have not."

"So, now, you are to lie even to me?"

"No, ma'am. I am not."

Shaking her head, Morpheus realized that any avoidance of his punishment had just been lost.

"Morpheus, Morpheus. Why? Why would you lie to us. Lie to me?" She folded her hands on the table as if to say, the die was now cast.

He sat in silence. Morpheus was many things. He had many flaws. But he was not a liar. He had proven this innumerable times in the past, risking his own very command, if not his life.

"General Lock, would you please play the footage from 4 weeks ago?" Niobe said with her head slightly bowed.

"Yes ma'am." With a click on a keyboard, there on the front screen was a grainy image of a man in Morpheus' standard residual self-image attire. All in attendance recognized this was far from definitive. There was murmuring in the courtroom. Lock held up his hands to silence them.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I must admit that from a distance, that" he said as he pointed to the screen "could be me. But it also could be any number of other people. It could even be a native of the Matrix. But I know something that you clearly don't. I can guarantee that was not me because I have not plugged into the Matrix anytime within the forbidden decree. I can promise you that."

She looked at him. Any compassion in her eyes vanished. "Well as you know, pictures are good. But videos are more demonstrative." She nodded to Lock. "Go ahead and start showing the rest of the evidence."

Morpheus realized that he had inadvertently sprung a trap. The prior evidence was by far not all the evidence they had.

Now they were going to show irrefutable evidence contrary to his testimony. But he was telling the truth, wasn't he?

The next few minutes were a blur of images and videos in quick succession, spliced together showing repeated evidence of multiple instances of Morpheus' breaches into the Matrix. The starting images were just as blurry as the first, but the rest became more and more clear.

"You knew we had this technology. Did you not think that we would find out?" Niobe, asked as the images played, not expecting an answer.

"I can honestly tell you, Niobe…"

Lock interceded "You are to address her with her proper title, Prisoner."

The buzzing in his head began to increase.

The last image on the screen was so clear, it left little doubt that Morpheus had undoubtedly reentered the Matrix, in direct opposition to the Council's decree.

Morpheus cleared his throat and slowly nodded trying to clear his mind. "Madame President, I can honestly tell you, my only foray into the Matrix was back…" the buzzing rose to a fevered pitch. He struggled to regain his focus. If it was even possible, it just continued to get louder and louder. He began to sweat. Subtly at first, but then so dramatically, it was obvious to all in Zion watching on their monitors.

"Forgive me. I only see the Matrix…" Again, his mind buzzed as though it was on fire.

Niobe did not let him finish. "As you can see these images are very convincing. But the best evidence is given through a witness." Niobe motioned to a bank of flat panel screens. There, on the screen, was someone that Morpheus had not seen for years. Of course, back then, he was referred to the moniker "Kid."

His mind attacked him again. He lowered the side of his head to meet his right fingers as he squinted his right eye to focus on what was sure to be dramatic testimony from his prior operator. He felt a wave of nausea hit him as he was now just trying to stay conscious. Was this a stroke? Was this a seizure? What was happening to him?

On the screen, the coursing images faded and instead the voice of someone Morpheus had not heard in quite a long time echoed through the courtroom and the streets of Zion. It was Triton. Of course, back when he first met him, he was just a kid. But he had a vital hand in the saving of Zion, taking command of one of the remaining mechanical exoskeletons to severe the counter weights of the gate. This opening is all the Hammer needed to enter the gate and unleash its Electromagnetic Pulse sparing Zion complete annihilation.

"Captain Triton, I appreciate you taking leave of your command to talk with us." Niobe turned to the court and gave some back story of Captain Triton's location. "As you know, the machines have allowed us to extract those that seek the truth in the Matrix to join us here in Zion. This has allowed a line of communication to the Matrix from here."

To most of the populace of Zion, Captain Triton was known to be Zion's ambassador aiding with locating and emigrating the Matrix expatriates. His reputation was impeccable.

"For the purpose of this conversation, he was also in a unique position to be an eye-witness of Morpheus' intrusion into the Matrix. Now, Captain Triton, are you able to tell us what exactly you saw?"

"Of course, Cap… President Niobe."

"What I need you to do is tell the court exactly what you told me three days ago."

"Well, we were traveling to meet with a group of wannabe hackers in the financial district when I see none other than Captain Morpheus fly by me on a motorbike."

"Are you sure it was Morpheus? I mean how do you know for sure?"

"Well, it was not difficult to recognize him. He is quite distinctive."

"Was it a simulation?"

The Matrix was, after all, a giant false reality created with such pristine coding that nearly anything could be created or emulated. It was not the first time that a hero of the war was cloned by someone entering into the Matrix. That being true, they could not clone how they acted. That was entirely encoded in the mind of the person that was plugged in. In a way, it was like the genetic code of the person. It could be mimicked but never recreated.

Morpheus knew this. Everyone that had spent any time in the matrix after ingesting the red pill, knew this as gospel. Morpheus paused. This is what shocked him in his dream the other night. He had never met her before. She was so young but… he knew her.

"No way. The way he vaulted from his bike to that overpass was classic Morpheus. I knew it was him when he stuck his landing. There was no hesitation. No fear. He knew he was in control of all that lay before him." He cleared his voice. Morpheus imagined what he looked like now that all the years had passed. When he was just starting his life, he had become entranced with his hero Neo. "So, if you don't mind me asking, when did you all reactivate him?"  
Morpheus realized that Captain Triton, the heroic "kid" from the great battle, was completely unaware to the reason of his testimony. There was no doubt in Morpheus' mind that this extremely loyal warrior would never consciously betray him."

"That is not important right now Captain Triton. We will debrief you when you return. Continue your good work."

"Yes, ma'am." With that the outgoing connection was severed.

She turned her attention to Morpheus.

The buzzing headache hit him again with the torrent of an explosion. His head had such a searing pain, that he almost collapsed. Morpheus imagined an EMP had just exploded just within his right ear. He struggled to focus on her face.  
"So, Morpheus, you have seen the evidence. It is undeniable. You have reentered the matrix. The problem is we have no idea how. You have no access to a ship. We are too deep to generate a stable signal. No one has ever been able to plug in this deep. Until now."

So that was it, wasn't it? Yes, Morpheus was condemned. He was most assuredly going to be executed for his insubordination this time. But they needed to know how he did it.

The only problem was that he hadn't. And he didn't know how he did it, if he did. He was just as baffled as they were. As if on cue the lights that once were so bright faded as his vision greyed around him.

The only benefit was that the headache was gone.

He felt the invigorating flow of air all around him. It was distinctively a feeling only from the Matrix.

He flew at such a velocity to a great point of light that seemed to swallow him whole. Diving into the direction of this mirage, he landed, feet first on the roof of a high-rise building crushing the tiles under his feet.

In the back of his mind, he heard himself question this reality.

"What was happening? Is this psychosis?" It had to be.

He was lost to madness. But at that moment, he did not care.

It was one thing to have a psychotic break. It was quite another to do it in front of the Council. It was, quite simply, a death sentence.

The courtroom burst into a flurry of panic.

Morpheus, the accused, had just collapsed in a convulsive groan of agony. Damning were his crimes, but he was also a war hero, and a beloved member of a very finite group of people of Zion who knew Neo personally.

Neo. The new one. The savior of Zion.

Some in the courtroom rushed to his side, cradling his head. His eyes were moving fast. Very fast indeed.

From the back, a doctor was ushered forward. She bent down and listened to Morpheus' organs with her stethoscope as she inspected his eyes and face.

"What is it doctor?"

"I am not sure. I don't think it is a seizure… it is almost like he is comatose… or…"

Niobe had seen this before, but she did not want to say it in front of the court, let alone the entirety of Zion.

The doctor had seen it as well. Via video and medical telemetry archives. He looked like Bane when he was possessed by Agent Smith.

He also looked like Neo after he destroyed the sentinels in the tunnels. Out in the Real. The doctor's only fear was that he was in fact falling victim to Post-Immersion Psychosis.

Chapter Five

Persecution

Morpheus stood at the rooftop and looked around him.

He still had difficulty ignoring the blue hue of the sky that belied the post-Neo Matrix. It was so easily explained by the machines. The destruction after the battle between Neo and the viral Agent Smith was so devastating, Morpheus wasn't sure how those humans enslaved in the Matrix would not find out about the truth. Instead, the Architect relayed to the global consciousness that a meteor had hit and the resultant particulates had caused the sky to be altered ever so slightly. As far as Morpheus could tell, this ruse worked.

The best lies were in fact the biggest lies.

It was actually quite clever. This explanation was easily absorbed by the community psyche of the vast majority of humans trapped in the Matrix.

Morpheus hated to admit it, but he felt at home in the Matrix. His deep recessed memories called out to him.

He shook his head. Where had he just been?

Oh, yes. The trial.

It seemed like a distant memory. He started to doubt if it was real. He felt as though the Matrix was his true reality, despite the red pill he had taken so many years ago. Before he was rescued. Before he was brought to the Real. To Zion.

A quiet and subtly accented voice called out to him from behind. "Morpheus? I thought we lost you. I don't know why I doubt. She knew better, as she always does."

Morpheus turned around. It was someone he had never met before. This young Indian girl looked up at him with a hint of a smile.

Subconsciously kneeling to talk to her, Morpheus asked "Who knew better?"

"You know who. The one seeking you. The oracle. She is here to see you. Now. Come with me." She grabbed his hand and turned, leading them both toward the waiting stairs. "She has been calling you. Haven't you heard?"

"You are the one that put the note in my jacket. Temet nosce? Did you do that?"

She smiled.

"Do I know you?"

"No. I met the One, however. Before his sacrifice. When he was lost between the worlds." After descending several flights of stairs, she opened the stairwell door and entered a long hallway. "It was an honor to meet him. My name is Sati. I was just a young program targeted for deletion."

"Deletion?"

"Yes. My program had the skill of rapid learning and, because it was outside of my creator's parameters, I was deemed both unnecessary and dangerous to the Architect. My parents saved me, but at great cost. That was when I first met him. Neo."

Morpheus' mind was puzzled by all of this. Programs deleting programs? What could make this program so threatening to the Architect?

For this, and so many other reasons, he needed answers.

His sanity hinged on gaining a grounding basis of reality.

He needed a new red pill, if that was even possible.

"Where am I?"

"You are lost. I was sent to find you. She needs to see you. Time, as always, is short. That is all I can say. The rest is for her to reveal."

They were at the door. With one firm knock, they opened the door and walked in. Sati led him into an empty and sparsely decorated living room. There was a couch. Despite the fact he knew his Matrix embodiment was physically not tired, he sat down anyway. It was a welcome rest for his soul.

Here he was. Again. In the Oracle's apartment. A different apartment of course. It had a different wallpaper and a different layout, but it still was undeniably her apartment. It was as though a wave of contentment greeted him when he entered it. That was the weirdness of the Matrix and those programs in it. It was as though certain locations, programs, and avatars emanated an aura around their existence.

Another sentient was there, someone Morpheus knew well. Morpheus struggled to remember the name of the protector of the Oracle. In some ways happy to see him, he was also well-aware of his tenacity. He was Morpheus' ally now, but he had only one allegiance, and that was to the Oracle. Seraph. That was his name.

He was there watching Morpheus' every move. He sat in a deep window well with his foot propped up and one arm around his knee.

Morpheus was happy to see that he was still alive. He was sure that he died back in the War.

With the Matrix rebooted, Morpheus was becoming less sure of almost everything.

"Good to see you again Morpheus."

"The pleasure is of course mine."

"You are looking older my friend. The years have been hard ones?"

Morpheus' Matrix residual self-image looked identical as it did during the war. "How do you…" then he remembered. Seraph was one of the oldest sentient programs of the Matrix. He imagined he could read his vital signs via the code that Morpheus was emitting as he stood there. "Yes. But I am here now. You would not have anything to do with that, now, do you?"

He smiled. "You know that answer, ironically. The oracle revealed to me that although you do not know that you know, you know. Ah, the wisdom of the Oracle."

It sounded like something the Oracle would say. She had an ability to spin circular logic into profound wisdom. "This really makes this whole thing quite interesting."

Seraph looked in the direction of the kitchen. Almost on cue, they both could hear the dinging of a rotary kitchen timer. He rose from his sitting position. "She will see you now."

Morpheus entered the kitchen, greeted by the aroma of freshly baked cookies. With her back to the door, she hovered around the oven as she pulled out a fresh pan of steaming treats.

Morpheus stood with his hands subconsciously folded in front of him. He was the first to speak "Temet nosce?"

"Nice to see you, too, Morpheus. As always, right to the point." She pivoted with a pan full of cookies. "Want one?"

He knew better than to refuse as he reached for a perfectly baked round morsel. "It has been a long time," he said. "I must admit, I am not doing so good. I am more lost and confused than I ever have been."

He took a small bite from the edge of the cookie. It seemed to calm and satisfy him. He let out a subtle sigh as he summed up his current state of mind "I feel as though I am being pulled between two worlds."

"More true than you know. Morpheus, you know better than anyone, that 'know thyself' means more than a mere two words. It speaks to the now."

"Yes," he said looking around the room. "But how? How am I here? Isn't this impossible?"

Her wise smile spread across her face. "'He' said you took some time to get up to speed but that you would."

"Who is he?"

"Now, you know that answer is the very start of your riddle. This is not a new thing for you, now, is it? But that is not the main problem with your soul. You miss him of course but you really miss her. She was your right hand, your strongest ally in all of this."

He knew who she was referring to but had to ask anyway. "Trinity?"

"Remember. It was her choice to go with him. It was her choice to protect him. It was her choice to try to save him. You know that, don't you? You blame yourself for not being there.

"You think that was the pivotal point where you truly lost them. But they had their purposes, as do you.

"Sometimes, it helps to go back to that place. It helps one understand the choice better, don't you think?"

A peace came over Morpheus. He needed her wisdom, now most of all.

Then, with no warning, his headache was back. The image of the kitchen shimmered then broke apart as it faded and merged into the image of the Real. The bright lights of the courtroom were unmistakable as a crowd of people huddled around him.

His vision faded again as the buzzing in his ears seem to amplify. An image of the Oracle's kitchen fractured this new reality and then increased in strength and intensity effectively drowning out the courtroom again. Then with one strong pulse, he was back in the kitchen.

This time, now, Morpheus was seated, and the Oracle was nowhere to be seen. In one sense it seemed like no time had passed, and yet, he was sure many minutes in the Matrix had transpired.

Then it all collapsed again, and a blinding flash of light showered his vision as he felt a shock envelope his whole body. As his eyes refocused, he realized he was looking at the cameras of the courtroom, but only for a moment.

Then he was back in the kitchen. Again. What was happening to him?

Morpheus rose from his seated position and moved to the door of the kitchen that led outside.

He found the oracle seated just outside the patio door. The smell of cookies was replaced with the smell of cigarette smoke. She was sitting looking out at the sky, nibbling a cookie with her left hand as she dangled a cigarette in her right.

"Welcome back."

"What is happening?"

"Morpheus, we have been looking for you for quite some time. Our time is limited and is, of course, running short. Where have you been?"

"The Pax…"

"What about the Pax?"

"It forbade…"

"'It' or 'he?'"

"What? What are you saying?"

"Morpheus, Morpheus. How do you know? What is the Pax? This, of all things, needs to be first in your mind. It should have been the first for years." She looked disappointed. "Surprising from such a one as you."

"What do you mean? This has to be a dream."

"Dream? Is that what you think I am? A dream? What is a dream, Morpheus? Do you, a victor in the Pax Neo, really claim to think this is just a dream? You know what this is."

"The Matrix. But how am I here? It is impossible."

"Impossible? You, of all people, should know what is possible and impossible. You, my old friend, will not like this answer. But it is true. Ironically, that is not the most important question right now. You have never answered the question that burns deep in your mind. Think Morpheus. Think."

"The Matrix. It has changed."

"Yes, yes. And?"

"But it has never changed."

"Good. You are good. Now take your time on the next question. It is the most important. Dig deep." She smiled as he walked to the edge of the patio and saw the sun set behind a distant building. He started to feel his migraine return.

"Take another bite of that cookie. It is your favorite." He took a bite out of the edge of the cookie. Looking down at the cookie he finally got it.

"These are not just cookies, they are also 'cookies,' aren't they?" He realized that imbedded in her cookies was another program subroutine. It was what was calming him. The very aroma of them was helping him better than any medicine ever could.

"Good. Now let it sit in. Let me settle in."

Morpheus knew one thing. His headache was getting stronger.

"What did I first prophesy to you?"

"That I would find the one."

"Did you?"

"Neo…"

She smiled and took another draw off of her cigarette. "It will really chap your behind later when you realize that your next question is by far not the most important."

Morpheus was strapped into the infirmary bed. His vitals and neural waves were displayed for Niobe, Lock, and the physician to see.

"What is going on doc? He is faking this, isn't he?" Lock said.

With an unceremonious slap across Morpheus' face, the doctor proved the point that he was unconscious.

It also effectively shut up Lock. "Hard to fake that, now, isn't it? Now let me get to work." She never had a stomach for Lock. He was just so narcissistic. She turned to the President, physically and intentionally ignoring Commander Lock.

"Okay, what we have here" she said pointing at the neural readout "are his brainwaves when he first arrived here. He was dreaming but it was not any ordinary dream. He wasn't asleep per se as he still had other vitals pointing toward an almost narcolepsy pattern."

"Speak English, doc."

"To be honest, this is not what is most important. We can figure that out later. Let's focus here now," she said pointing to the overlay of neural wave pattern and his vital signs. "See this? I only see this in one setting, President Niobe. Somehow, he is jacked in," Dr. Jefferson concluded.

"What?"

"You got it. He is jacked in. Somehow… Yes. He is most definitely jacked in. Now I have only heard of this happening once before. Well, actually twice. It was from the archives from the Hammer's med bay."

"Bane."

"Yes and no. Similar to Bane but his was also demonstrably more pathologic. Bane's brain wave denoted something else. His mind was actively being remodeled. This, is something else."

"Neo?"

"Yes. That was the last time this sort of thing was ever recorded."

They all took a deep breath in reflection of the doctor's discovery. "After Neo disabled the sentinels in the tunnels... this is Neo's brainwave pattern," she said punching the monitor. A split screen appeared. It showed a recording of Neo's brainwave pattern with Morpheus' underneath it. It was nearly identical.

Niobe muttered under her breath, as she looked at her past lover. "Morpheus what in the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

"Whoa! Will you take a look at that?"

Lock, regaining some sense of himself asked "What are you seeing?"

She pointed at the monitors. Suddenly, everything decreased in intensity to a point that his heart seemed to stop for a moment. His breathing slowed, but his neural activity bordered on a complete discharge of his neurons followed by smooth and synchronous wave forms.

"I have never seen that before."

Niobe repeated "What in the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

Chapter Six

Epiphany

"Ask the question."

"Was Neo the one?"

"Bingo. You know the answer."

"Yes."

"But if he was the one, why didn't you follow?"

"Follow…? I couldn't. That would have been impossible."

"But you believed, didn't you? You believed in them both. But there is more, isn't there, Morpheus? There always is, isn't there? For someone as bright as you, I would have thought you would have figured it out already. It is the names. It has always been the names."

"Neo was the one… but he wasn't the final one."

"Hahah! There you go."

"How is that possible?"

"Now that is the question."

His headache grew in intensity. It was hard for him to think but he had to, didn't he? He wanted the answer. No, that was not right. He needed the answer.

"Is there another?"

She smiled in return. Her image began to flicker and fade with the entire patio around her.

He screamed with all his might "IS THERE ANOTHER?"

It was too late. She was gone.

Chapter Seven

Reckoning

"What the hell was that?" the senior council member declared. Niobe and Lock were back from the infirmary. This councilman had been against the trial in the first place, let alone its broadcast. He made his position abundantly clear.

"We have no idea. The doctor is not quite sure, either," Lock lied.

"I am not talking about Morpheus. I told you. I told you! I knew this was going to end badly," he said, slamming his fist down on the table.

It was Niobe's turn to speak. "You were correct, councilor."

"Now we need to finish the trial. Is Morpheus going to be able to come back up here?" he said to Niobe.

"That, is an unknown at this point. We think Morpheus…"

Lock interrupted Niobe "… will recover soon." There was no way the council could know that Morpheus was freely entering the Matrix. Without an immersion chair. The chaos this information would cause, if it got out, was incalculable.

Lock, also had a more important agenda. It was imperative that his secret stay a secret. The full extent of the Initiative could not be known.

"Well, I told you that broadcasting it was a bad idea. Live? Are you kidding me? The entirety of Zion is in chaos. This can NOT happen."

"I know councilor," Niobe humbly said. "It is far from ideal."

"Ideal? Ideal? I told you this was a risk. I told…" the rest of the council chambers erupted in rising murmurs and side conversations.

What were Niobe and Lock to say? He had been right. There was rising chaos and the council did not know what to do next.

Lock knew what he wanted to do. His mind was singularly focused and at times he had difficulty understanding the collective humanity outside of the walls of the administration. He knew he could not merely demand order. It would not work, and he learned that some things forced created the exact opposite reaction amongst people.

Most importantly, it was Niobe's place, not his. She was the president. Lock had long sought that position, but the more he reached for it, the further it slipped from his grasp.

"Enough," Niobe said. "I will broadcast what we know and I will calm Zion. They will return to work. I promise this… or you can have my resignation.

"Now, enough of this. The broadcast commences in five. Hold on to your wits, people! Morpheus is a man. That is it. He means more to Zion than that, and we must recognize that for what it is." She turned to leave the room. "You," she said pointing to her small cadre of advisors "come with me."

Niobe left Lock with the Council.

All the air had been sucked out of the room. The dread of losing control of Zion was palpable. If Niobe could not calm the populace, the alternative would be complete collapse of Zion into civil war.

It seemed like an eternity, but as promised, the President's transmission began on the monitors all around them. With the start of her broadcast, the crowds outside of the building quieted. Her image appeared on the video monitors throughout Zion.

"Tonight, I, President Niobe, present myself to you not as your President but as a former Captain and friend of the beloved Morpheus." She left a pregnant pause as she collected her thoughts and emotions.

"We all have love for Morpheus. We all have our allegiances. Pause what you are doing. Collect your thoughts. Pray if that is what you believe. Pray for his quick recovery. Pray for our city. Pray for humanity.

"There is not much more any one of us can do. Yes, he was accused of many recent crimes, but he is still Morpheus, great champion of the Great War. I promise you, we will take care of him.

"He is currently undergoing intensive medical care… but I do not know with a certainty he will survive." A tear formed at the corner of her eye, despite her best efforts to hold it back. "Let us not lose our heads." She subtly held her breath for a moment to control her emotions.

Then she looked deep into the camera. A quiet resolve washed over her countenance as her inner warrior took over. "You all know this truth, but it is worth repeating. We are all soldiers here in Zion. Anyone, I repeat, anyone that does not do their jobs here in Zion will cause a catastrophic failure of this great city.

"I for one appreciate you all rallying on behalf of Morpheus. This very spirit is what has kept us alive. It is what has made us great. It is time to go to work. But first, I order you to take a breath." Another prolonged pause.

"Look around you.

"Kiss your loved ones.

"Hug your families.

"This is your life. You only have one, after all. But this one life will ensure the survival of all humanity.

"We cannot negate our responsibilities because doing so will negate our life and the lives of all our loved ones. Nor can we omit our duties.

"Morpheus didn't. Neither should we.

"Thank you, Zion." With a flip of the controller switch, Niobe was off the air. She nearly collapsed from the stress. Shortly thereafter, a visibly exhausted Niobe exited the Council building.

And Zion went back to work.

"Welcome back Captain Morpheus," the doctor said as she entered the room.

"What happened?"

"You, my good friend, have upturned the apple cart yet again," she said as she started to grab supplies. She put them at the foot of the gurney smothering Morpheus' feet. "Time is short. I hope we are not too late."

Chapter Eight

Clarity

"Eve?"

"Yes?" A girl in the middle of the classroom said with an air of innocence.

"Please present yourself to the principal, young lady."

"Why? What did I do… this time?"

"I warned you not to use these computers for anything but your chosen assignment."

"What do you mean?"

The teacher smiled. "I have all the evidence I need, young lady." The teacher turned on her overhead projector to show an animated version of herself as a dragon eating each student. A markedly obese dragon, at that.

"I know you did this. Mr. Jones is waiting for you."

Eve collected her belongings and was firmly led by her teacher out of the classroom. As the door shut, the cheers from her classmates were evident. Apparently, they fully supported her insurrection.

Eve smiled despite herself. This was not her first foray into hacking. It was what she did in her free time. In fact, this one was so easy, she did it while her classmates were at recess.

Niobe sat at her office desk, massaging her temples. It had been hours since her speech, but it had worked. Despite being in the middle of the night, the hum of normal activity had returned to Zion, even through the deserted halls of the government offices.

There was a firm knock on her door, startling her. She thought she was alone in the building.

"Come!" she barked to the void.

In came Lock. "Niobe, I want to congratulate you on such a good message. I should know by now not to be surprised by your capability."

His attempts at flattery may have worked in the past, but not this time. "It is not going to work, Lock. That ship has sailed."

"It does not hurt to try." He cleared his throat. "I am here for other business, however."

"You are here about the Initiative, aren't you?"

She knew this was going to be an issue. She was never comfortable with the mess she inherited but as soon as Morpheus showed signs of "the illness," she knew this conversation with Lock was an inevitability.

Lock coined the term "The Initiative" for his program of executing those suffering with Post-Immersion Psychosis. It was surprising that Zion's citizens had not learned of this process, as not much stayed secret in this small city.

"You know I am. The risk of revolt… if they find out what we did to all those soldiers…"

"Now wait a minute Lock. This is not a 'we' thing. You started the Initiative long before I came into office."

"Yes, but you do know now about it, don't you? You continued right along with the plan when you took office," he said approaching her desk. Threateningly, he leaned on his fingertips looking unblinkingly deep into her eyes. "This is as much your problem as it is mine."

She shook her head back and forth. "That is a bunch of crap, Lock, and you know it. As soon as I found out about it, I shut it down."

"Six veterans. Six. Two of which were under your watch as President. The other four were while you were the head of the military. It does not look good for you, Madame President."

"Because you never tested them, Lock." She looked up at him. "It does not look good for you. What if they were not Post Immersion? What if they were hacking into the Matrix?"

Lock leaned back and folded his arms. "We will never know, will we. That is immaterial. The Initiative, Niobe. Focus. We have to make sure the citizens don't know. And there is a way to make sure it never gets out."

It took a moment for Niobe to trace where is his mind was going. The pit in her stomach meant she had indeed traced his thoughts. She just had to hear him say it. "How, Lock? We did an excellent job of convicting Morpheus of entering the Matrix unabated as he fell into the psychosis. You saw it just like I did. People are going to put two and two together and… how do you suppose we stop that?"

"You, I, and the physician are the only ones that truly know what happened. It must end there. Morpheus, for all intents and purposes, had a fatal event." He let that statement sink in for a moment. "It is over. It is the only way."

"And his Matrix intrusions?"

"He clearly had a contraband immersion rig. We will spin his entry to the Matrix as an insurrection and rebellion to disrupt the Pax. He clearly was a sick man to be pitied," he said as his mind whirled behind his almost machine-like eyes. It was moments like this that Niobe wondered how she ever left Morpheus for Lock in the first place. He gave her the creeps.

Lock continued "We could even offer a reward to anyone that finds the rig Morpheus used."

To stop a wildfire, sometimes you had to backburn. It was as true in politics in Zion as any time in history. A focused catastrophe, in this instance, could abort near total devastation for Zion and the entire human race.

This all started and ended with Morpheus.

This was Niobe's moment of truth. This was the make or break it moment that determined the mettle of true leaders. Stand on practicality or principle. In the end it was not much of a choice.

Chapter Nine

Escape

"Where are we going?"

"You are an anomaly, Morpheus. There is something going on that I can't explain and that is dangerous," the doctor said as she wheeled him through quiet hallways in places that Morpheus had never seen. And that was unusual for him given his illustrative career as both captain of the Nebuchadnezzar and as a jack-of-all-trade maintenance worker. "You keep hacking into the Matrix, Morpheus. I don't know how, but you are doing it. The only thing that is keeping you here with me is the crappy reception down here in the Nethers."

The Nethers were the base levels of Zion that were entered by only a few. It was the first level that was built under the auspices of a place to study the earth's core. The fact that they once stored nuclear waste down here was also another point of concern.

The maintenance drones ruled this area of Zion. Early in the war with the machines, there was concern about the drones being hacked by the surface, and the poor reception meant some level of immunity.

The poor and fragmented transmission reception was a win-win for Dr. Jefferson in this instance. It kept Morpheus from hacking uncontrollably into the Matrix and it kept the power players of Zion as far away from Morpheus as possible.

Morpheus was a hero to her. It ran in the family. Her nephew Dozer gladly served with him, and died in his service on the famed hovership, the Nebuchadnezzar. Losing a family member was never easy, but she knew that Dozer never regretted a moment of it. He loved Morpheus the way that only a soldier could love a revered general.

But it was more than that. Morpheus was like a father to him. She knew that if she could protect Morpheus, even just once, she had to do it. For Dozer.

"Let me ask you again, Jeff," Morpheus said, using her nickname amongst the Hovercraft crews, "Where are we going?"

"Where you will be safe. You don't know this, but many still care about you. They care about what happens to you. And if the Matrix won't let go of you, how can we?"

As they neared a corner, they came to a blind passage. Morpheus recognized the obvious. They were trapped. He felt the waves of fatigue hit him as he faded slowly into unconsciousness. This occurred just as he saw the doctor fish a device from her belted pack and attach it to the wall as she activated it.

"Sir, she won't give us the codes," the buff soldier relayed to Lock as another soldier was led away limping with a bloody nose. From the background, expletives could be heard from Niobe. She was telling the soldiers what they could do to themselves.

"She will. Once she knows that Morpheus' life is in danger. She will. Sergeant take a break. Let her sit for a bit thinking about her options," he said dismissing the soldier.

Lock replied Niobe's last words as President in his mind.

"Hell, no. Lock! Never. That is Morpheus you are talking about. MOR- PHEUS. You are frickin nuts, Lock. You know that? Nuts." She positioned herself in her chair, resting her elbows on the Presidential desk. "He is not to be touched, understand me?"

His response clearly shocked her "I was afraid you were going to say that," he said as the doors to the presidential office burst open and four soldiers appeared. "You brought this upon yourself." They rounded her desk as searing anger boiled in her eyes toward Lock. "Many on the Council don't like the chaos that has reigned of late. We will bring order again to Zion."

Lock was brought back to the present when a call came on his headset. "Sir, there is a development you need to know about."

"What, corporal?"

"He is gone."

"Who?"

"Morpheus."

"I saw him. He was comatose. How in the hell is he gone?"

"I don't know sir. But they can't find him."

"I don't care how you find him. But you find him, you hear? Find him, now!"

"Yes, sir!"

He picked up a glass figurine from Niobe's desk and hurled it at the wall. As it shattered to mere dust, he let out a guttural growl that resonated through the halls of the deserted executive offices. Lock's plan was unraveling and that only meant one solution. Escalation.

He had to have the executive codes to make this work. To have the codes, the President had to surrender them. For that to happen, he had to have Morpheus. Despite that all calculations would favor a match with he and Niobe, she still loved Morpheus. Over him! Now it was more of a pride issue than vengeance or jealousy. He clearly was the better being.

He shook his head. She still loved the broken criminal. He was sure of it.

Why was he wasting his thoughts on such an irrelevancy? He had to have those codes! It was the easiest and least messy option. He was not sure even Zion, or the Matrix, could survive his plan B.

Niobe sat shackled to a chair in a storage room off the Presidential office. She had lashed out at two of the four soldiers and that was enough for them to give it a break. Just because she was restrained didn't mean she couldn't still be a weapon.

She sat back and considered her situation. They were asking for the codes which meant only one thing. It was not only a cover up but a coup d'état. As soon as Lock got the codes, she was as good as dead.

Lock. What a prick. And she once thought she loved that man. He had to have a plan if his recovery of the codes failed. He wouldn't do that, would he? Setting off an EMP in Zion would cause a catastrophic system failure. And this "system" meant the entire infrastructure of Zion, including the life support system. He wouldn't be that crazy, would he?

Lock. What a disgrace of a man. No, "man" was too gracious a term for what he really was. A demonic beast was more accurate.

He had many motives, including being all too power hungry. He was self-righteous with a misplaced messianic complex.

It ate at him that there was a messiah for Zion in his lifetime, but it was not him. Neo fit that role all too perfectly. Most pressing, he had to cover up as much evidence as possible about the Initiative before it was too late. It was part of his ingrained narcissism. Admitting he was wrong was an impossibility. He had to erase any evidence of his failings and this meant that he needed to eliminate the doctor. And Morpheus. And her.

She tried to suppress the panic that welled up inside of her: If Lock had moved on her, then it was too late. They had either taken Morpheus, or he was already dead!

As they fled into the depths of Zion, an alert hit Jeff's wrist band. She knew that the infirmary's sealed doors had been breached. No one had access to it after hours, especially her office. They were on to her. She just hoped that her ride was not late. She also hoped that this ride would be agreeable to the insurrection. When you were the last human city on earth, treason was too soft a term. Any movement against Zion's administration was akin to the fall from heaven of the demonic host.

She had to assume that Niobe was directing those seeking Morpheus.

She just could not imagine that Niobe would do this to her, let alone Morpheus. Niobe's love for him was obvious to her. It shocked her that it was not obvious to Niobe herself for someone usually so attuned to her surroundings. When it came to the matters of the heart, it was shocking how messy people's lives were, by their very own designs.

Morpheus had fallen asleep. She looked at her patient. He was once such a strong man, but he now looked broken. Beaten down by the people he had so feverishly worked to save. But yet there was strength there. Deep inside him. Deep inside his face. She could not place it but, one last fight was still in him. She was sure of it.

She did not need to say it out loud, but their time was short. If those that entered the infirmary were astute, they wouldn't be far behind them. She was running out of options, and her lack of planning these next steps was causing a well of panic to rise in her. As a scientist, she knew panic helped no one, but the predator.

Bending down, she reached under the gurney. She had never used a plasma gun before, and she prayed she never would. If, however, the time came, she hoped she had the muster to do what was necessary.

"Sir, where next?"

"Our orders are clear. He must be retrieved at all costs. Preferably, alive, but dead if need be. If you were to take him out of here, where would you go?"

There was an awkward silence. Then a familiar face appeared. Zee turned the corner from the doctor's personal office to the infirmary. "Clearly the only way to get Morpheus out of here was on one of those." She pointed to a bed with transporting wheels. "If this was the mode of transport, there are only a limited number of options." She straightened her uniform. After her separation from her man Link, she had to have a job in Zion. Hers was as a security officer.

Life certainly had its ironies. She was now hunting the man that her husband had served with during the Great War. He was the reason she almost lost him the first time.

He was also the reason she ultimately lost him.

Because of Morpheus' influence, he could not subsist in Zion doing a more routine assignment. No, he was addicted to the life aboard a hovercraft. That was when she truly lost the love of her life.

She had stopped trying to keep tabs on him. He was probably on a hovercraft somewhere, patrolling endlessly the no-man's-land that lay between Zion and the surface.

Month after month, year after year, she could no longer handle the stress of this needless separation. It was just last month she had finally ended it. Although the machines had declared Pax, there were rogue sentinels that for one reason or another were no longer connected with the surface.

In other words, the danger was still there and real. His laughing descriptions of near fatal "incidents" had worn out her patient. She simply had enough. If he could not live with her in relative peace in Zion, then he could not have her at all.

"What options are these?" the sergeant asked.

"Really two directions: up or down."

"Well down would be suicide. So where did they go in Zion?"

"Not so fast, commander. The Nethers are not out of the question. The radiation issues are not as strong as they once were, if they were ever that bad to begin with."  
"Risk or not, to hide there would be lethal. Time is not their ally down there. They would not be able to stay down there very long."

She nodded. "Yes, sir. But we have picked up zero surveillance of them in Zion. No signs of Jeff. No signs of Morpheus. No gurney. Further, your presupposition that they could not stay there for long is correct. With all due respect, however, your conclusion is wrong. I believe they have an escape plan. From the Nethers."

"You are crazy. No one has gone there for generations."

"Crazy or not, that is where they are."

"Damn it, Link. Where are you?" Jeff muttered as she continued on her way. The perceived blind passageway was in fact a hidden door. She had worked on creating this path when she first found out about the Initiative. It took some doing, and she lost some patients along the way, but she finally had it ready, just in time.

She knew it would not keep them off their trail for long, but any extra time was a blessing.

She futilely looked at the secure com device. She was losing any sense of patience as she awaited his first contact with her via their secure com. The Nethers' transmission dampening field was something that she should have better anticipated.

The police force put on their radiation monitors and entered into the first passageway. The lights were working but were way past their prime. Like hallways from an old horror movie, they blinked and hummed. After the first five minutes of their treck, something odd happened. Their radiation monitors diminished in their receptive tones.

"What the hell? All of these years, I heard this was a no-go zone," the second in command of the team said into his headset.

Zee responded in their headsets "The waste placed here is centuries years old. It only makes sense that the worst would be at the surface of these caverns. I guess the earth's core has found a way to absorb some of the older radiation," Zee was not able to join them. The baby growing in her womb precluded that.

"Okay team. Enough of the chatter. Gamma, what do you see?"

Far from a tracker, the third in command grew up hunting the only living food source in Zion, and hence, was the best at finding subtle tracks of his quarry. Rats did not have the best meat, but it was fresh, and it was better than the slop they were normally forced to eat.

"Every so often… see these marks? I think they are wheel tracks. They are wide enough to be Morpheus' stretcher."

"Okay. Keep up the pace. We must bring Morpheus back to Lock."

The sensors that Jeff had set up were slowly and methodically being tripped. She knew it was a matter of minutes. They were reaching her hidden door now. She hoped it would cause them to pause.

Her thumb nervously played with the gun's trigger. She did not want to turn on the plasma gun too soon, as its hum would have echoed through the halls. Just like she did before the first incision of surgery, she took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. She closed her eyes. She said to herself. "God, please give me the strength to do what I must."

"A god, I am not," Morpheus muttered as he awoke. "What in the hell is going on?"

"Shhhh! Quiet! They are almost here," she said, with her index finger in front of her mouth.

"Who?" he asked as he tried to reorient himself. His eyes blinked hard as he shook his head trying to shed the cobwebs. He arose from the gurney and swung his legs free.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Whoa there," she whispered back "You are not well enough to get up."

"Well enough or not, I can't stay here doing nothing," he murmured. Back on his own two feet, he had to use his hand to steady himself against the wall of the tunnel. "So, refresh me. Who is after us?

"Zion."

"Great. Just one enemy," he said with a smile. "And what is your plan?"

"We are waiting on a ride."

He looked around them. "Here? This is the Nethers, right? How in the hell?"

Clearly, the doctor was out of her element and nothing was more demonstrative of this than her handling of the plasma gun. "Give that to me. You are going to shoot your foot off."

Her confidence started to wane. What in the hell had she gotten herself into? It seemed so plausible and noble when she started this whole process. "What is our status?"

"You are correct. We are in the Nethers. We have a team approaching our position," she said as she pulled out a tablet with a rough map of the Nethers tunnels. "We are here. We came from…" she said as she moved her finger, tracing a side tunnel "…here. I have set up sensors to know how much time we have."

"And, where are they now?" he said as his finger traced the path they had just taken. It subconsciously stopped on a junction point not far from their position before he removed it.

She pointed to a place a fair distance from their position. "They are here. They are trying to work through a false door. It won't take them long, but it has given us some breathing room."

"I presume they are not coming to talk?"

"I presume they are coming to kill us both."

"Getting better all the time. Jeff, stay here."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to see about our options." He jogged around the curved tunnel back to the junction point. He looked back. Jeff's waypoint was perfectly hidden by the curve. He paused and listened intently. In short order, he made his way back.

"How close are they now?"

"They just triggered this one. They have made it through the door."

"They haven't detected your sensors yet?"

"Thankfully, no."

"Okay, help me with these bags," he said as he lifted off the doctor's supplies from the gurney and placed them on the floor. He unlocked the gurney and rolled it to the junction point.

Being a four-way junction, he looked in all directions. The doctor had chosen the straight option. He proceeded to take the gurney a short distance down all directions. That was when the doctor realized her critical mistake as she looked down. The gurney's track was leading them directly to them.

He took the gurney up the branch with an incline and as the tunnel's ascent peaked, he paused. It was now or never. He just hoped he was making the right tactical play.

He took a deep breath, and gave the gurney a gentle push, then jogged back to the doctor's position. It started rolling, slowly at first. When he reached the doctor, the bed fully surrendered to gravity, and started rolling away from the intersection at an ever-increasing speed, making a God-awful racket as it careened off of the tunnel walls.

"What in the hell are you doing? They are going to hear that!" she forcefully whispered.

"That is the goal. Leave the strategy to me, doc. They are already on their way, you said it yourself." A cacophony of noise was evident as the gurney crashed into a distant wall. "Now, let's hunker down and see if they take the bait."

They both hugged the hidden wall of the tunnel as silence descended upon them.

"Alpha, did you hear that?" Gamma asked as the sound subtly reverberated down their passageway.

"Roger. We have them now."

Chapter 10

Hades

"Patience, Jeff," Morpheus said as he clutched the gun in the kneeling position hugging the wall of their passageway. They were hidden but were also trapped in a dead-end with stacks of abandoned barrels immediately behind them.

He took a deep breath and whispered "I hope you had a plan to escape these tunnels."

"Yes, I have a grand plan," she quietly declared as she mustered a nervous smile. If it was meant to comfort Morpheus' nerves, it didn't.

"Good, because I was starting to worry."

"Okay, gamma, which way?"

He knelt down looking at the tracks left by the wheels of the gurney in the dust and grime of the abandoned passageway. "Tracks in all directions. These…" he said pointing to the left passageway, "show two separate tracks of the bed going forward. As do these," he said pointing left. "But this path… this one only has one set," he said pointing right. Presuming that Morpheus was bed bound he added "They went that way and never came back. They must have gone that way."

"Acknowledged," Alpha said as he motioned his team to the right passage. "Epsilon. You stay here, await our signal."

Over their headset, they heard Zee through static asking "Alpha… are you seeing …team?"

"These walls are interfering with communications. I repeat. Your last transmission was limited."

"…ledged… peat… Acknowl…"

"We have three options. The tracks appear to lead us right. I repeat, we are heading right. We are heading that way. Now."

"Ack…edged."

"Well, that almost worked," Morpheus said. He had not anticipated the team was going to split up.

"What do you mean?"

"They left one at the junction. This will make it somewhat sketchy. Here," he said handing the gun back to the doctor.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't want them to hear the hum of the plasma gun. I have one shot at this. I hope I can catch him off guard."

"I don't think this is such a good idea. You were just in a coma."

"This will not take much skill, doctor."

Epsilon stood watching the last of his team cross over the hill of the right passageway. Over his headset he heard the lead of the team over a broken transmission say "Well, we… the gurney. It is pretty f…ed up."

Straining to hear his headset, Epsilon could not resist the natural inclination to look in the direction of the broadcast. Looking down the right passageway he said into his headset. "Repeat, team lead. Repeat the last transmission." That was his critical mistake.

Moments before, Morpheus had rounded the corner gaining speed and momentum with his target well in view.

The soldier did not see it coming. By the time he was on top of Epsilon, he knocked him completely off of his feet. With a thud, they both hit the wall so hard it knocked the air out of Morpheus and he had been prepared for the impact. The armor-clad soldier did not fare as well. He collapsed nearly instantly.

Reaching down, Morpheus took Epsilon's headset and switched it to mute. He put it around his neck.

"Jeff, you can come out. Help me move him," he said as he stripped the soldier of his supplies and weapons.

They drug him up the incline just high enough he was out of sight of the main passageway but not so high as to risk those at the gurney seeing them.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving us more time. Here take this, and do as I do," he said as he handed the doc the soldier's plasma rifle.

In the supplies of the soldier were flash grenades and several concussion grenades. It also had extra battery packs for the plasma rifle. Stacking them in a heap at the start of the passageway, he carefully stepped away back into the junction point. He hoisted the plasma rifle to his hip and motioned the doctor to do the same.

"On three, light it up," he said as he motioned to their target with his head. They both fired up their plasma rifles as they placed their fingers on the triggers.

She did not argue. He was the one with the military training. "One, two, three!"

The streams of the plasma rifles leapt from their rifles and landed in the pile of supplies. They ignited instantly. The resultant blast collapsed the passageway with rock and debris. A cloud of dust and debris swallowed Morpheus and Jeff moments later.

After the last of the rocks settled, the only sound they heard was the alarmed shouts of the stranded team on the other side over his headset.

"Woo hoo! Hell, yeah. That is what I am talking about!" Jeff said waving her hand to dissipate some of the smoke and dust.

"Well done, doctor. I'll make you a soldier yet! That should give us some more time. Now, about that ride?"

She nodded her head and reached into her jacket and pulled out her communications device. "Extractor, this is archangel…" only static. "Extractor…" then the truth hit them both. There was no way her com device would be able to transmit through the walls of the Nethers.

"It is okay. We have a plan B." She just had no idea if this plan B was going to work. She pulled out an ultrasonic transmitter. This device meant to help localize workers lost in the tunnels near and in Zion were developed with the original building of the city. They just were not used much anymore.

The good news was that it would help them be found. The bad news is that others could also track them. If they knew what they were looking for.

It was a risk they had to take. Morpheus nodded. "I don't see we have another choice, Doc. Turn it on."

A hovercraft was coasting above the glowing earth's core. Still hot enough to be liquid, it would not be long before it cooled to a giant iron ball.

"Ex… er… is… gel," the broken transmission was broadcast over the secure channel. Secure or not, it could still be tracked.

"Lieutenant don't respond. There is too much interference." The futility of trying to reach them over coms was evident.

"They are alive. That is the good news." The worry after hearing the explosion over their headsets and speakers was palpable. They all feared the worst. "Hoping she will switch to the ultrasonics."

The ship flew as close to the core as possible, with the goal of shielding their presence and their location. It also meant that any mistake, and the ship was toast.

They knew the general location of their target by the shower of rocks and debris that rained down on the molten core. The debris that rained down from the rockface above would have been strangely beautiful in any other circumstance. As it approached the molten core, the fires seemingly met the debris in mid air, igniting it in hues of different colors denoting the minerals in the dust and rock.

"Over there. They have to be over there," Link said as he pointed to an outcropping ahead of them. The ship's direction changed with his directive.

The first report from their ultrasonic receiver was soft but grew in strength, speed, and intensity the closer they got. Upon reaching their target, the pings blended into a nearly constant tone.

In short order, the ship's computer triangulated the origin of the transmission. "There! Get us up there." The anticipation was blended with the concern of how their ship would fare if another cluster or rocks broke free on top of them. They were between two very real physical dangers: Being crushed by rocks and the molten core below. "Closer… just a little closer. Good. Now, open the top hatch," Link said as he jumped up from his captain's chair.

On the way, he grabbed a plasma rifle and fastened the platform's tether to his belt.

When the top hatch opened, Link was greeted by a blast of hot air. The pungent smell of scorched rock and sulfur assaulted his senses.

They were just above the earth's core, after all.

He engaged the platform and powered on his plasma rifle. He knelt down on one knee and targeted the unique outcropping that the ship's computer had just identified as the origin of the sonic transmitter.

With the precision of a surgeon, Link sliced into the rock. The feedback recoil of the rifle belied the depth of rock it was fighting through. Then, with little warning, it gave way, causing him to stumble forward. He quite nearly lost his footing.

It took a moment, but the dust and debris settled enough to see through the smoke. There, nestled within a narrow corridor, Link saw the faces of a beleaguered Morpheus and the doctor. Covered by the soot of Link's work, their eyes looked all the brighter as they reflected the bright hue of the earth's core. It was evident that they were coughing as they peered through the dust.

Motioning with his hand, they jumped onto the surface of the hovercraft and moved quickly to the top hatch. Link, huddling with his two friends, activated the platform to retreat back inside their ship. With a loud clank and whoosh of sound, the top hatch was sealed.

The worn and battered nameplate of this ship was before them. ""Welcome back, Captain Morpheus."

The ship had a familiar name. "The Nebuchadnezzar. How…?"

"We salvaged it from your ship. It was not that hard to find," he put his arm around Morpheus's shoulder. "We couldn't let the name die, now could we?

"Lieutenant Juleah, get us out of here."

The familiar hum of the repulsors and engines engaging was therapeutic to Morpheus' ears. "I forgot how much I missed this."

The ship engaged its electrified hover jets and started to move with a purpose.

"Aye, aye. At 75 percent power heading to rally point now."

Jeff caught Link's attention "We had better get Morpheus into a chair."

"He is jacking in?"

"Yes and no. If my theory is correct, we may seem some fireworks once we clear the core," the doctor said.

"I don't follow."

She smiled. "He won't be jacking in. He is already jacked in." A puzzled look was his response. She patted his shoulder. "It will all make sense soon… I hope."

The three headed down from the command deck and put Morpheus into one of the immersion chairs.

"You have missed a lot while you were on this ship. Somehow he is entering the matrix… without an immersion protocol or wire."

Link looked at Morpheus with a raised brow. Morpheus' response was a shrug of his shoulders. "I can't explain it Link. I thought I was losing my mind." He cleared his throat. "I am still not completely convinced that is not still what is going on."

A few bumps greeted them as the ship moved from one outcropping to the next. Stealth, at this point was important, as they wanted to ensure that the Nebuchadnezzar was not suspected in Morpheus escape.

Over the com Juleah announced "Brace yourselves. We are clearing the core field." The electromagnetic field and air convection currents created an interesting effect on an electro-repulsing ship such as the Neb.

By the time Jeff and Link looked back at Morpheus, he was out. "Told you. It is truly screwy. He did this during his trial."

"I bet that didn't go over well."

"You have no idea."

He was jacked in. His rapid eye movements and the occasional twitch of his body made that clear.

"I have a feeling we are in for a wild ride, doc." All she could do was nod in agreement.

"Young lady, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Eve looked at her mother. She had little to say.

She had no remorse for her actions. In fact, it was obvious that she loved every minute of it. "I am sorry?"  
"That is it. You are grounded from all tech for the next week." She took a deep breath, controlling her emotions. "You will find a way to make this right with Mrs. Baldwin. You hear me? I am so ashamed of you. I am very disappointed."

"A week? No way, Mom. No way. That is NOT fair."

"Want to make it a month?"

Eve turned on her heels and headed to her room, slamming the door. She threw herself to her bed facedown into her pillow. With all of her might, she screamed a muffled "I hate you!" This did little to ease her frustration.

Morpheus looked at the city he once thought was his home. This fabricated failed utopia was the center of the Matrix. A lie created by the machines to fuel their domination of the earth and eradicate the last free pocket of human civilization. As mindless human drones filed past him on the street, he knew he needed some solitude to clear his mind. He needed to process what was happening to him. He started walking. At first, mindlessly, then more directed. He sought out the places that were formative in his search for the One and the great war.

He walked by the software company headquarters that was meant to corral Neo's talents. He walked by the restaurant he had worked at as a teenager. He walked past the first apartment building that housed the Oracle.

He made his way to the building that was summarily destroyed by Neo and Trinity as they saved him from captivity with the agents.

Finally, he saw the building that saw the great betrayal of Cipher.

There was one place. One place that still called for him. It was a bit of a walk, but he would be there soon enough.

Eve's mother finished cleaning up dinner. Knowing that her oldest daughter must have been starving by now, she made her way to her room with a plate of food. Eve had been in her room pouting long enough.

A gentle knock was met without an answer. She opened the door gently so as not to disturb Eve, if she was in fact sleeping.

She was greeted with an empty room.

"Oh, Eve, you are in so much trouble."

Eve had snuck out her window numerous times in the past, but this time it was different. She was not running somewhere, but from something. That something was her life. It was not hers. It was as though she was in a poorly written play and she had finally been able to escape. After the fifth block, she realized she was walking further and further not from her life but to something else. But what?

It was like a new puzzle. A mystery. An itch in the back of her mind. It was becoming so palpable she could nearly… almost… barely grasp it. Like a mirage, her mind struggled with comprehending this one thing. This one foggy memory. This obscure concept.

This thing she sought was not an answer but, itself, a new purpose.

She was lost but not hopeless.

She was confused but not baffled.

She was injured but not broken.

She finally paused at a corner of two busy streets deep in the city. She took a deep breath and did something that made absolutely no sense. She let her heart tell her where to go… and she did not argue. It was time to trust the most important person in this whole mess: Herself.

Minutes later, she stood in a part of the city that she had never been. A place full of factories and municipal utilities. Despite the seemingly new surroundings, she felt it was, somehow, familiar. No, familiar was not accurate.

She could have sworn she had been there before.

There was something about this place.

Something important.

She looked at the guard station of the power station and for the first time, she had such a strong sense of déjà vu, she could hardly stand it. It was as if she was in a loop of consciousness that would not let her go.

It was so strong that realized she could not move. She was frozen in place. She tried not to panic but she could feel the anxiety rise deep within her.

She was not sure how long she was there when she heard an oddly familiar voice behind her.

"Trinity."

Flashes of memories hit her cortex. They were not dreams or memories of dreams. They were so much more real. So much more tangible.

She turned around. Any child her age should have been rightly frightened by the approach of a stranger, especially one in a black leather trench coat. But this stranger brought along an immense sense of comfort and safety. It also freed her from her self-imposed paralysis.

Stammering a bit, she responded to this strange man. "Uh, Sir, my name isn't Trinity…"

Of course, it couldn't be. She was dead, wasn't she? What was Morpheus thinking?

But yet, there was something in this girl's countenance. It was not anything obvious in her appearance but, rather something emanating from her spirit, if that was such a thing in this false world.

It was as though Morpheus could see through this projected image of this girl into her very code.

The code held something familiar, didn't it?

He shook his head. Now, he was starting to second guess himself. Was he losing his mind?

"I am sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"That is okay, Mister. I hope you find her."

"No, that is not possible. She died long ago. To be honest, I never was willing to accept it. Forgive this old man."

He turned to leave. Then she said, "You wouldn't be Morpheus, would you?" He froze.

"How do you know that name?"

"You look like him. From the archives. But that was years ago… just wondering," she said pausing for a moment. "He knows The One, at least that was what I found out."

"The one?" he turned back around and knelt down before her. She did not respond. He reached out and grabbed both of her hands. "What do you know of The One?"

"A lady at the museum told me I would find him one day."

Morpheus could not help but let a smile creep across his face. He looked back to her, this time looking deep in her eyes. Those eyes could not lie.

He asked a question that he already knew the answer to. "She didn't say just that, did she?" He cleared his throat slightly. "She told you something else, didn't she?"

"I don't know..."

"She told you that you wouldn't just find him. She promised you something else, didn't she?"

Her blush was instantaneous. That was his answer. He asked more pointedly "She told you that you would love him, didn't she?"

She shyly whispered as her cheeks reddened further "How did you know that?"

Niobe squirmed in her chair. Her zip tie restraints were digging into the flesh of both her wrists and ankles. Frustratingly she was resigning herself to her fate when she suddenly felt the seat of her chair give a bit. She smiled.

With one quick movement of her body, she was able to lift the chair into the air, slamming it into the concrete floor. The squeak of the metal was like music to her ears. It didn't give all the way, but she knew it was only a matter of time now.

"So where are we headed?" the doctor asked.

There were many crew members she had never met before, but she didn't have to. She already knew them by the grit they needed to muster everyday under the surface of their once vibrant planet. Yes, there was a peace with the Squiddies. They however were still as voracious as ever protecting their border.

There were also the rogue sentinels that had long since let their own AI brains tell them who and what was worthy of their rage.

In this armistice, there was only a limited number of surface locations where free humans were allowed to breech. Where they were going, was not one of them. "We are approaching the border of the machine's Core."

The core was where the machines held the main hub of their entire system. This is where Neo and Trinity were last headed. In fact, this was the last known location of them both.

She looked down at her ward. Morpheus' eyes were moving with a speed that was unnerving. This was more fevered than most jacked into the Matrix. Perhaps the current state of Morpheus was truly a blend of being immersed in the Matrix and dreaming.

Sleeping he was not, however.

His blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and brain waves were as though he was wide awake.

Patting his shoulder, she said "I hope you find what you are looking for, Morpheus."

She could feel the ship settle in and land. Moments later, Captain Link turned the corner. "Well, Jeff, we are safe… for now. Zion will figure this out soon enough and then we will be in a tougher spot. You want to let me know what is going on?"

"Morpheus is somehow freely jacking into the Matrix. No wires. No rigging. Nothing. He is showing signs both similar and yet particularly different than what we saw with Bain. And Neo."

"What was up with the trial?"

"He was banned from entering the Matrix. The Pax hinges on this." She looked down on Morpheus.

"But he is not intentionally entering it, is he?"

"Not as far as a I know but regardless, he is there now. But there is more. I don't think he was the first."

He looked at the doctor. "Who was first? Where are they?"

"That is the problem. I can't be sure. I think they are 'gone.'" She quietly added where she truly thought they went. "Immersion psychosis."

She didn't have to explain herself any further. He knew full well what happened to those with that diagnosis.

"Link, you helped save his life, but after that, I am really not sure what else we can do."

"We have him safe. Now we need to finish the plan."

"Agreed."

"I have some ideas of just how to do that."

"Sir, we have finally reached the team. We can't find Morpheus, or the doctor."

He slammed his fist down on the desk. "Explain, Corporal."

There is a breach to the foundation of Zion. The search team was sealed off of the main corridor by an explosion. We don't know yet but… they have either perished in the earth's core, fled through that hole, or …"

"How likely do you think that happened?"

"Unlikely. I think they escaped back into the Nethers and into Zion. It is taking us some time to free our search team…"

"They are not relevant. I don't want excuses. I want Morpheus!"

"Hold on, sir" the officer said, listening to his headset. "I am getting word from the team. They are now free."

Lock snatched the headset from the officer.

"… they blew up the corridor. No, I have no idea which way they went."

"This is Lock. You lost them?"

"Yes, sir, they were on to us." A pause. "There is no way the doctor did this on her own. She must have had help."

"Or Morpheus helped."

"Morpheus? I thought he was comatose."

With a huff, Lock retorted "Consider all options, commander. Get back up here so we can continue our search." Disgusted, Lock ended the conversation. "Corporal Cyrus, we have two traitors loose in Zion. Maybe more. What next?"

"Well, the doctor had limited operational expertise. Secondly, she does not have an understanding of the inner infrastructure of Zion. But Morpheus…"

"Yes, I know. He is about the worst combination of skills and knowledge I could imagine in this situation. He is well trained, highly motivated, and has superior knowledge of Zion's maintenance tunnels than anyone else."

"We have one advantage, however. They can't hide from these for long," he said, pivoting his chair to the bank of video surveillance monitors. It was impossible to watch all the cameras, but their computer system was able to use visual identification algorithms to parse down suspected individuals to only a small number of possibilities.

He was right, Lock had to admit. It was just a matter of time. He smiled inwardly. This game the doctor was playing would only end one way. And that was with victory for Lock and his agenda. "How is forensics doing?"

The forensics crew was hard at work gaining any evidence they could to help decipher which direction the doctor and Morpheus headed. This included the video and audio from the team that was attacked and trapped once they were rescued. The computer was parsing the data as they spoke. All the while, the human operators were digesting it as well.

"Nothing yet. They are good, however. They will get you something soon." Cyrus said nodding at the forensics representative huddled around a computer terminal. The guy looked like he just above the consignment age of the Zion militia.

And good they were. Former operators and immersion warriors from the war were now tasked with more relatively mundane tasks. This was mere child's play for them in comparison.

"Well keep watching those surveillance…"

And with that, the screens went dark.

"What the hell? What the hell just happened?"

The zip ties that held her to the legs of the chair were the first to go. She wiggled her way back to her feet and grasped one of the metal legs. Using it as a crowbar, she was able break her hands free. With two zip tie anklets and matching bracelets as mementos, she was able to move a file cabinet under the air vent. It was fairly easy at that point to extricate herself from her makeshift cell.

Her first task was to get to a computer terminal to use her presidential access code to lock down most of the security functions of Zion's mainframe. This instantly shut down any and all surveillance programs running at that moment. Now she had to make sure she reached a safe location. She just hoped she was in time to reach Jeff and Morpheus. She also had to presume they could take care of themselves.

Who could she trust? This rang through her head. She had no idea how deep this coup d'etat ran. She knew one safe place, however. One where Lock would never have the upper hand. She made the decision to get to the Hovercraft officer's headquarters. There, she could muster those who would protect her and Zion.

"We are locked out, sir."

He immediately knew what had happened. "Where is Niobe?" His guard all looked at each other. Without a word, he strode through the hall, opened the President's office door, and made his way to the closet that held Niobe. Slinging it open, he was greeted by the remnants of her chair. Lock growled "This can not be happening. Get her back now. Find her!"

"Sir, I think I have something…" the forensics member said, striding toward Lock.

"It had better be good."

"Here, sir, listen to this." He played a recording of a repeating subsonic tone. "This was missed on our first sweep. In fact the computers did not even catch it. Sir, I believe this is a subsonic locating beacon."

Officer Cyrus looked at the private. "A what?"

"It is a device to find lost miners. It can travel great distances…

"That could mean anything." Lock looked at both of them, frustrated with the officer. "What are you telling me?"

"There is only a limited number of reasons that the doctor would activate it." Lock nodded. "It means only one thing. Morpheus has left Zion.

"Thank you, Sergeant. Continue."

"The breach was not caused from the explosion. The breach was the purpose of this whole escape."

Lock cleared his throat. "Your new assignment is to find whichever hovercraft Morpheus is on. Now."

Chapter 11

Homecoming

Niobe made it to the commander's quarters of the remaining hovercraft squadron. She knocked on his metal door firmly. The sort of knock that carried authority and a purpose. After a few moments, it opened with the annoyance of someone high in command.

What he saw caused his countenance to change to one of recognition and affection. He smiled. "Madame President. With what do I owe this honor?"

She quickly darted into his quarters. For most of Zion, the day had not even started. This gave her the security of walking the halls of the military corridor in virtual anonymity. Her intrusion into his quarters was somewhat odd for her once superior officer, especially entering his quarters without an official invite.

She closed the door behind her. "Sorry to barge in on you like this, but we have to talk," she said in hushed tones.

She could smell the brewing coffee. At least she hadn't awakened him. "We have a situation." She went right to the meat of the matter. "Lock is leading a coup d'etat."

He sat down. "Lock?" Niobe was not one for drama. If she was here, it was real. She was also there for a reason. The formalities of their respective offices faded instantly. "Niobe, what do you need?"

"I really don't know why he went rogue… this seems too aggressive of a move, even for him." She cleared her throat. "He has the council chambers and my office in lock down. He even detained me for a bit."

"Didn't last long. It looks like you gave them a memento of their efforts," he said looking at her forehead. She absent-mindedly reached up and felt the laceration. She must have caused it when she headbutted one of her captors.

"Yeah. They will be feeling it for a while."

Commander Jeremiah was able to put two and two together. "This doesn't have to do with Morpheus, does it?" She nodded her head. "What in the hell was up with that trial?"

"Long story. The key thing is I need to know who I can count on… 'cause Lock has mustered up quite a force in support of his move."

"He is still the Council head of the militia," he said as he ran his hand over his bearded chin. "I can only imagine. Lock does not do things half-ass." He paused. "But, to detain you… that is something. As always, we have your back. You are safe here." This statement was greeted by a loud knock on his door.

With quiet precision, he rose from his chair and pointed her to a side closet. Understanding immediately, she entered and closed the door leaving only a minimal crack open that gave her a good vantage point of the room. Jeremiah walked to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee into his metallic coffee cup and then walked back to the door just after another louder series of knocks echoed through the room.

Swinging the door wide, he was greeted with the face of Lock. Feigning surprise to see him, "Councilor. What do I owe the pleasure? Come in, come in. Would you care for a cup of coffee?"

"No, thank you. Commander, we have a situation. A confidential situation."

"Yes, sir. Come in. Come in. Have a seat," he said as he led Lock back the seat that was just occupied by Niobe.

"We have a wanted fugitive. He has escaped."

Taking a sip of his searing hot coffee, Jeremiah looked at him in some confusion. He wanted to ask "He?" but thought better of it before the words left his mouth.

"Councilor, I am not sure how I can help you. You have your security detail. This fugitive should be easily rounded up. What do you need from the air corps?"

"No, you don't understand. He has escaped Zion."

"Who?"

"I am not at liberty to say."

"And how on earth did this fugitive leave Zion?" He took another sip. "Only a mad man would wander the tunnels outside of Zion."

"He did not walk away, Commander. We believe he boarded a hovership. One of your hoverships."

"No, Councilor, I find that highly unlikely. How would that even happen?" He cleared his throat. "The punishment for that crew would be…"

"Jeremiah," Lock said as he leaned forward. He cleared his throat. "This is extremely confidential. We are talking about Morpheus. He is the one that escaped."

Niobe realized she had been holding her breath. She knew she would be heard if she exhaled. She slowly let the air out of her lungs as her body screamed for oxygen. She let patient resolve rule her body's needs as she heard the door open again with the entry of some of Lock's guards. She was able to breath with the commotion they brought.

Her mind was racing. She now knew Morpheus was not captured and that he was not dead. She also now knew he was safe, out of Zion.

If he was out of Zion, he was going somewhere.

She also knew one more thing. She had to get to him. This was because if he truly was fleeing the authority of Zion, he was as good as dead… if and when he was found.

She just hoped he had not thought that Niobe was in on the entire plot.

"We need to know where each one of your ships have been, where they are supposed to be, and where they are going to be."

"No problem, Councilor. That data should be readily available via the servers."

"That is the problem. The servers are locked out."

He looked at him with an odd look. "Just ask the President to open up the access…"

"Impossible. She has locked us out. We now believe she was the reason he escaped. The President herself is the accessory to his escape."

"Niobe? You are accusing President Niobe of aiding and abetting Morpheus' escape?"

"It makes sense. She was once his lover. She was the one that arranged that fraud of a trial. She had the most to lose if his punishment was carried out."

Jeremiah slowed nodded his head. "Well, I am not sure how I can help. We will need to find the President and…"

"No. She is gone. We have no way of finding her. What I will need is for a crew to go out and look for him and the traitorous ship. What ships are here?"

"Now Lock, you know I can't do that without a Presidential decree."

"I see. I am sorry to hear that."

With lightning speed, Lock drew his service pistol from its belt holster and shot Jeremiah in the center of his forehead. The deafening sound echoed throughout the once quiet residence. It was followed in quick succession with the collapse of Jeremiah's now lifeless body. "I will see what other arrangements can be made, Commander," he said as holstered his weapon.

Niobe bit her hand to hold back her tears. Her shock was met with immense sorrow and rage to what Lock had just done.

Lock said to his men, "The Commander has chosen his allegiances. He has been relieved of his duties. Now, we need to commandeer a ship. Can you make that happen, Cyrus?"

"Already done. Our crew has already boarded the Solomon and is making plans to be underway within the hour."

"Very good Captain. Please post a guard, and make sure Commander Jeremiah is not disturbed."

"Acknowledged, sir."

As the door closed, Niobe was able to release the sob that was growing rapidly inside of her. She carefully opened the closet door to ensure she was alone. There, on the floor, was the man she had loved as a father.

Looking down at him she felt her rage turn to unabated resolve. This determined rage commonly went by a different name: Vengeance. And vengeance was most lethal in the hands of a trained and deliberate weapon. Niobe clearly met that definition. And she rarely if ever missed her mark. Now, all she had to do was get on the Solomon.

She couldn't kill Lock yet, however. She needed him to get to Morpheus. Who knows? She could possibly help in protecting Morpheus, if Lock every found him. There were plenty of good hiding places on a hovership. She was just thankful that Lock knew nothing of Jeremiah's back door.

Morpheus sat with his new friend, sipping a soda at a diner not far from the power plant. "You are quite smart for someone so young."

"I am twelve. Thirteen, next month," she said as she chewed a French fry.

"I was going to guess that age." He looked at her book bag. "I see you are in school. Studying hard?"

She nodded.

"Any hobbies?"

"Video games… and… um… coding."

He smiled. "You sound a lot like one of my old friends. A great friend and, may I say, warrior? Fearsome and accomplished."

"You called me her name. Trinity?"

"Yes."

She smiled. She pulled out her laptop. Opening it up, she showed him her recent searches. "I looked her up. It took me a while, but I found a bunch of info on her and her friends. One was named Switch. One was named Mouse. And Morpheus." She looked up at him.

"He was really feared and then… nothing. He looked like a younger you."

He did not answer her obvious suggestion. Instead, he asked "So what did you learn about Trinity?"

She described her greatest hits such as the hack of the IRS D base. Her respect of these accomplishments was obvious. There was just something about her that did not sit right with him. She wasn't describing someone else's accomplishments…

No that was not possible, was it?

What did that mean?

From behind him, he heard a familiar voice. "You should not have come."

It was Agent Smith.

Chapter 12

Flashback

Morpheus did not know how this could be, but he turned to face a devilish vision that had only greeted him in his nightmares. Agent Smith smiled at his long-lost nemesis.

"Eve, leave now."

"Why?"

"Now, Eve!" he sternly commanded as he jumped to his feet. He was met with a flurry of punches and kicks that caused a scattering of all that were eating inside the diner. Although the mind that controlled the Matrix avatar was older, the residual self-image was easily up to the task of defending himself. Despite his best skills, he knew that his best effort would only match Agent Smith's attack. He would not be able to defeat him.

"The terms of the Pax were clear. What was so difficult to understand?"

"I did not enter the Matrix. I was summoned here."

"Impossible. Stop with your lies. You are no longer welcome here, Morpheus."

With a flurry of punches, Morpheus realized any detente had passed. Somehow, Smith was faster now. So much faster, Morpheus did his best to bottle up his fear.

It was time to run.

This realization came just a moment too slowly, however. The smile on Smith's face was surreal.

With a kick to the chest so powerful that Morpheus could imagine his lungs rupturing, Smith launched him through the diner front window. With a shower of glass and debris, the entirety of the Matrix seemed to bend and compress to that singular moment when Morpheus met the outside parked car. With the brief but clear silhouette of Morpheus in the side panels of the sedan, it took milliseconds for the Matrix to catch up with the action. In quick succession, the vehicle's windows exploded in a shower of glass. Despite the damage to both the car and Morpheus, something odd happened.

Morpheus stood up.

Not that standing up was odd. It was the speed in which Morpheus recovered from the attack. Something was different about Smith. But something was different about Morpheus as well.

There was a difference with knowing the path and walking the path.

He smiled. It was now Smith's turn to be taken aback.

Their fight renewed in intensity as punch after punch was delivered in rapid succession to both Smith and Morpheus. The collateral damage inflicted on that diner was catastrophic.

Quickly, Morpheus realized the truth. Despite his surprisingly resilience and vigor, Morpheus was still no match for this new Agent Smith. Morpheus stood accepting what was to be the final assault on his body. No matter how fast he seemed to recover, he knew he could not survive this continued onslaught. Where could Morpheus run? Not being jacked in meant there was no landline to run to.

Agent Smith looked at his prey with a vengeance not seen for a billion cycles. Shedding his glasses that were already fractured by their melee, Agent Smith flexed and stretched his simulated muscles. At that moment the very fabric of the matrix were bent by his frame.

As Morpheus stood to accept the renewed onslaught of Agent Smith's attack, he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Knowing what was to happen next, he resigned himself to his fate. It had been a good life, hadn't it? It would end in a good death.

Then he remembered. It was more of a fragment of a memory but it grew inside him.

No! He was not going to die this way.

No! With each volley of blows he forced himself inward.

This was not of his own doing. He was being forced to come into this world and that was for a specific purpose. He had a destiny. A fate beyond his own mind. He struggled to wake up so that he could remember this elusive thought. He yearned for it to take hold of him and show him the next step. What did it want from him? What did it need from him?

He felt the fight become re-born in him. The fight he had not had since his first day of being an awoken warrior in the Real. The fight that spurned him forward to find Neo. The fight that led him to "win" the war.

This fight belied a hidden truth that only his subconscious would admit. There was something more in him that would never allow surrender. Something so powerful that he knew he would be a fool not to recognize. As if time slowed to an imperceptible moment, Morpheus realized something greater than himself. Time was the key. It was both the most important factor and also the most irrelevant.

To all those in the matrix, Smith instantly accelerated to the speed of sound as he leapt toward Morpheus with only one goal. His utter destruction. The sonic boom was evident in a cloud of vapor around his feet.

But to Morpheus, he saw something quite different.

With patience and confidence, Morpheus knew he was no match for Smith's speed or power. However, both were tied to time. And Morpheus was now acutely in tune with the never-ending clock of life. If it was the one constant of the Matrix.

If it was a constant of the Matrix, it also meant it could be manipulated.

He was not naïve enough to think he could control it completely, but he recognized its key influence on all things. If everything else was secondary to this fact... then…

Morpheus met the stare of Smith. As quick as he was traveling to meet Morpheus, he also recognized the change in Morpheus' countenance. Not as evident to those in the Matrix but obvious to Agent Smith, a glow of light began to emanate from Morpheus' coded self.

Smith clearly saw the burgeoning aura of Morpheus and his astonishment was more than internal. Morpheus never thought he would see an agent's face change to one of fear and astonishment, but, nevertheless, there it was.

Morpheus stood in the infinity of fractured time between seconds and manifested a voice so deep and loud that it met the speed of the agent mid-flight: "ENOUGH!"

The matching sonic boom buffeted the agent and caused him to reverse course and smash against the roof of the diner. With a renewed rage, Smith refocused himself.

This fallen human was merely that. He was still no match for him, was he?

As he looked around the sidewalk of the totaled sedan he glared for Morpheus. There was only one problem.

Morpheus had vanished. That one-word utterance of Morpheus, had not only stopped Smith but transported him somewhere else.

What had just happened?

With a rage that met his frustration, Smith glared at all those around him as leapt back to the sidewalk outside the demolished diner. Agent Smith left the scene with the slow walk of determination.

So that was it, wasn't it? There was no one to report to. It was clear to the entirety of the machines. The Pax had been broken. And with the Pax in ruins, preparations would need to be made for the final assault on Zion.

Eve slowly climbed out from underneath her table.

Surprising herself more than anyone else, she was not terrified about what she had just seen. She made her way over the broken tables and glass.

Finding herself on the other side of the street as the police and other emergency personnel arrived at the scene of the battle, she took shelter under a small shade tree away from the commotion. She folded her legs and sat on the green grass, taking it all in.

The chaos around her should have shocked her. It didn't. The battle should have been scary to her. It wasn't. It seemed somehow familiar to her. The movements of the two in the battle defied her imagination, but, on the other hand, it didn't.

What did she just see?

She clearly knew that the physics of that battle did not make sense, even to her young mind.

She then asked herself the most important question: What did it mean?

As Niobe approached the flight deck, it was obvious which ship was the Solomon. The flurry of activity was electric.

She did not have much time. Its pending departure was evidenced by the degree of personnel swarming around its perimeter.

After making her way to the flight crew locker room, she donned the uniform of an enlisted soldier complete with a cap. Pulling it down as low as possible, she did her best to hide her identity.

She hoisted a box full of ordinance and waited for a lull in the crew's movements. She headed up the gangplank into the belly of the Solomon hovercraft. Knowing exactly where she could find a safe and undisturbed location in which to stowaway, she quickly unloaded the box. She grabbed a tube of machine grease as she made her way in haste to her destination.

The aft crew bunk room was just starboard to one of the main engines, and was also the favorite port of entry for any squiddies looking to disable the hovercraft. It was a well-known weak point in the hovercraft's design. Any unlucky crew member who was sleeping in this particular bunk was typically the first casualty to any such assault.

For obvious reasons, this particular crew cabin was avoided. In fact, the crew was known to double and triple bunk in other quarters so as to not put themselves at risk. The other downside was the echoing sounds of the adjoining engine that made any restful sleep elusive and fragmented.

To err on the side of caution, Niobe ensured the door was locked. It could be opened with the right key, but who would bother with it given the haste they were trying to get underway? She took the machine grease and proceeded to sloppily apply it to her face and exposed arms. She figured something was better than nothing to make her look less like the President of Zion. She pocketed the tube of grease and hunkered down into a hidden corner of the cabin.

She was not sure what she aimed to accomplish on this the newest of the hovercraft fleet, but she had her ideas. She just hoped the providence that had guided her thus far would reveal her next steps.

This ship had been recommissioned after harvesting salvageable parts from the destroyed hovercrafts rendered inoperable during the great war. "New" was a loose term in Zion as efficiency of resources was a necessity.

She looked around her commandeered quarters. What was deemed unfavorable by most by the noise, was an opportune location for a potential saboteur.

The engines, both highly efficient and powerful for propulsion, also functioned as the energy source of the repulsors. It also allowed for the energy source for charging plasma rifles and the ship's own limited armaments. The EMP was their main weapon, but they had other offensive weapons. The plasma cannon was one. The pulse torpedo was another.

In short order, she heard Lock announce over the intercom "Team Intrepid, prepare for departure." Lock did love his mission names.

The next voice was that of Commander Cyrus. "Team, our mission name is opportune. We are to maintain complete radio silence. We are to minimize extraneous work. This is not a mission to reconnoiter the machines. We have one task and one task alone. Stop the insurrection as masterminded by one of our own. The very Pax rests on our success. The lives of our family and friends rest in the balance. There is no going back and no surrender. For Zion! Carry on crew. Prepare for departure."

More like search and destroy. Niobe thought. She wondered if they knew that their target was their revered Morpheus.

Little did the crew of the Solomon or its Captain know that the machines were well on the way to finish the war that was interrupted by the Pax.

And they were headed right for the front lines.

Captain Link and his Lieutenant were busy looking over the telemetry before them as they, tried to make sense of what they were seeing.

"Captain, I hate to say this, but the machine's weapons factories are back up to full tilt. They are making a massive force of Sentinels," Lieutenant Hannaniah said.

"And that means only one thing."

War.

Link pondered his next step. He was torn between his allegiances.

He had Morpheus but no one knew they had him.

If he radioed the imminent breach of the Pax, the entirety of Zion would have his location.

If he didn't, then Zion would be completely unaware of a possible imminent attack. This would put all that he knew and loved at risk. Including Zee.

But, and this was a big "but," only a fool would radio their location if they had Morpheus.

"We have to contact Zion. We need to let them know. Open a secure com, Lieutenant."

She raised an eyebrow to her Captain. "Aye aye, Sir," she said as she punched in several commands on her instrument screen. "Line open."

"Zion, this is Commander Link. We have a situation. Pax terminus. I repeat Pax terminus." Given the advanced technology of the machines, they resisted keeping prolonged open communications to avoid tracking.

"Acknowledged, sir. Request confirmation. Please confirm."

Knowing full well the implications of this declaration, Link had only one choice. "Pax terminus confirmed. Telemetry data en route. Time to awaken the General. We are going dark. Updates as allowable."

"Acknowledged Captain. Be safe. Out."

Just as he was ending his communications, a voice behind them queried "Where in the hell are we?" Link instinctively covered his microphone. Morpheus was awake and Link just hoped no one was able to voice match his question.

Link turned to his former commander. "Good to see you up. Are you okay?"

He rubbed the smooth skin atop his head and nodded. "Feeling a bit odd, but I am okay. I heard you say 'Pax terminus.' Is that true?"

"Yes, I am afraid so. Our telemetry shows they are preparing for an assault, soon."

Morpheus collapsed in the navigator's seat. "Damn it. It is my fault. Somehow, I did this."

The Lieutenant offered her opinion "We do not know that, sir."

"I do. I saw him, Link. I saw Agent Smith."

"Smith? We were told that he was destroyed. How?" Link paused and looked away as his mind processed that bit of information. "We were told that is what set up the Pax, after all."

"I don't know how but… there is something else. I need to put this all together somehow… I need time to think."

"That is a luxury we do not have Commander," the Lieutenant said.

Morpheus was with them and then, with little to no warning, he slumped back into his chair. It was clear to both Link and Hannaniah that he had just jacked back in.

"Welcome back, Morpheus. You are learning, aren't you?" the Oracle asked as they were sitting amongst many others at an outside café.

"Learning?"

"But not fast enough I fear."

"I have caused the Pax to fail, haven't I?"

"It was destined to fail regardless of what you did or didn't do. It was a mirage. A means to cloud your vision."

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I am doing nothing to you. You are doing all of this."

"I am not inserting myself into the Matrix. I have no control of this."

"That is where you are wrong, Morpheus. How did you escape Smith?"

"I realized that time was as malleable as the rest of the Matrix."

She smiled and changed the subject. "So, Morpheus. What does your name really mean?"

"To change."

"Change. Hmmm. That was an interesting name you chose. What is the most vital ingredient to have change?"

A little frustrated with the Oracle's teaching, he answered "An object must change into something else…."

"And…?" It was obvious he was going to need just a bit more help. "What is necessary my good Morpheus for this to happen?"

"I don't understand…"

"It is so obvious. Remember the recent lesson you learned…"

He pondered this. "Time. It is time." He smiled. "Time is the necessary ingredient."

"Good. Now my time is short. Let's get to the meat of the matter. Your names were chosen by whom?"

"We chose them. In the Matrix."

Then suddenly something happened that shook Morpheus to his core. The oracle became transfigured into a powerful yet terrifying angelic figure. Rising to look down upon Morpheus. "Your appearances in the Matrix are tied to something, but not ours. The Sentients are not tied to anything, are we?"

She resumed her normal form as she grabbed his shoulders. "Think, Morpheus. You believe your residual self-image chose your hacker aliases? How is that possible? Residual of what, exactly? You are smatter than that Morpheus.

"Think. Re-think. Stop just living one moment to the next. You all are so much more than this. You must remember! Trust yourself. Sometimes the impossible is the only possible solution. Trust…"

Tucked into the hold of the ship, Niobe's mind wandered. Just one day prior, life was as it had been for years. Now she was back on a hovercraft.

How? For the last several weeks she had a recurring nightmare. She thought it was more post- traumatic stress than anything else. In her dream, it was always started as though she was helplessly falling. Each successive dream, however, it became clearer that she was not just falling, but she was the pilot of a ship that was plummeting to its destruction.

It seemed so unrealistic to her. She had not been a pilot for decades which made this whole dream all the more odd. Unless of course you want to consider that one flight in the great war…

And now she was back on a hovership, the last place she ever thought she would be.

Morpheus awoke with a start. Hannaniah with Link were looking down at him. He had a look of confusion in his eyes. No, that was not it. It was a look of terror.

He was drenched in sweat and appeared out of breath. He mumbled under his breath, "We are in serious trouble."

"Nebuchadnezzar, this is Zion." the announcement over the cockpit speakers rang out.

Link fumbled for his headset as he engaged their secure com system. "This is Link. Go ahead."

"Well, we have a situation here. The General and the President are both MIA. And one of our hovercrafts is missing."

"Can you track it?"

"That is the bad news. All of our servers are locked out. In other words, we are blind."

"Acknowledged, Zion. Expect our return imminently. Out."'

Link shook his head. Things were not going well. He attempted to change the subject. Looking to Morpheus, he asked "So where were you this time?"

"With the Oracle. I saw her." Morpheus had been assuming that his prior insertions into the Matrix were dictated by the Oracle, or even randomly. He was starting to reconsider that presumption. What if his own mind was dictating his reentry points?

"Just like that? You appeared with her?"

"I really am not sure where to start. It is not the first time I have seen her either. She has been schooling me." He grasped at the memories as though picking out pertinent fragments of a dream. "She said something… something about our names. Earlier, she convicted me on my failure."

"Failure?"

"I never followed him."

"Who?" It was Hannaniah's time to ask a question.

"Neo. I never sought him out. Trinity, too. I just left them there."

"They went to the source. They never returned. You know as well as I do, that meant only one thing," Link said. The silence that Morpheus gave in response spoke volumes. "Where were you supposed to go, to the machine's core?"

Morpheus looked deep into Link's eyes. It was clear what Morpheus' intentions were.

"Oh, hell no. No way. That is suicide. We are not going to the machine city."

Morpheus let that statement go without a response. Instead he changed the subject.

"She said something about our hacker aliases. That we were not the ones that chose them in the Matrix… that we had to remember… our names actually mean something more."

They all stopped for a second. Only the odd beep and tone from the ship's navigation computer and other systems broke the otherwise complete silence.

Morpheus thought about his name. It meant change but it also meant more than that. It meant to transform.

He thought of Link. That one was simple enough. It was a connection between two.

Trinity. It denoted three in one.

Neo. It meant new, but in the right context it meant the New one.

Morpheus leaned forward and talked with quiet resolve. "She also brought up something that I never thought about, at least not fully. Our images in the Matrix. Our residual self-image. Residual of what?"

"Sir, we have the Nebuchadnezzar ahead in 5 clicks. What are your orders?" the pilot asked Cyrus.

"How confident are you that this is the correct target?"

They had been tracking the electromagnetic residue of the hovercraft that fled the earth's core and this tracking led them to the ship ahead. The principle of magnetism meant that for a short time, the ions of any exposed metal would align to where the hovercraft had just passed leaving a trail of magnetism that degraded in a manner of hours. Thankfully with a clever algorithm generated by Commander Cyrus, it created a map in the heads-up display pointing right to the Nebuchadnezzar. Still a good distance away, it gave the crew time to ready themselves for the attack.

"Confidence is high, Commander."

Cyrus looked at Lock, who nodded. It was time to render that ship ahead of them to nothing but debris. Tracking hovercrafts was more of an art than a science, but Cyrus was the best at it. He was sure that the ship ahead of them carried Morpheus.

Chapter 13

Intercept

Link rose from the seated position as his pilot Juleah made her way to the command deck. "We have to get back to Zion."

Morpheus looked toward the two. "Hold for one second. Where are Niobe and Lock? They are both missing the same time that there is a ship missing. To me, that is no coincidence."

"Agreed."

"We have to assume one thing. They are together on that ship and they are after me."

"Agreed." Realizing this truth meant that they had been so focused on the surface and the activity of the machines, they left themselves vulnerable. Link motioned to his Juleah. "Corporal, check for any nearby acoustic echoes. Ensure we are not being ghosted.

Ghosting was a technique whereby a ship could, in theory, sneak up on another by using an incoming vector just above and directly behind it. This "180 sunset" approach took advantage of a weakness in the engineering of the ship. Because of the electromagnetic signature of the hovercraft, this left a shadow effect where the sensors were essentially worthless directly behind the main engine and reactor core. There was always a theoretical risk that the machines could commandeer a hovercraft and use it to attack the remaining human ships.

Because of this theoretical risk, all captains had learned of a counter maneuver using echoed acoustics as they bounced off of the nearby tunnel walls.

"Approaching the target at the 180 sunset position. We should be in range in under 2 minutes."

"Arm the pulse torpedo. We want to make this one shot and done. No survivors."

"Aye, aye, sir." If there was any moral wavering by the navigator, he did not show.

Checking for these acoustic echoes meant using the onboard computers to temporarily put the engine in idle mode, hence erasing the blind spot before almost seamlessly reengaging the motors. This allowed for the echos of any ambient sound or electromagnetic noise to return back to the redundant ship's sensors.

As clear as day, the silhouette of the looming ship was evident to all in the cockpit. "Shit."

"Crew, we have incoming hostiles. Ready yourselves at battle stations. This is not a drill."

They could hear the opening of all of the crew quarters nearly simultaneously. The pulse of every crewmate of the Nebuchadnezzar quickened in synchrony.

"Less than 60 seconds." The speed of their approach was just short of what would have stalled out most airplanes. They did not want to spook their quarry.

Niobe had long since left the confines of her hiding place. She was in earshot of the command center and had heard enough.

She crept along the undercarriage of the ship back toward the main engine. They planned on incinerating not only Morpheus but all in that ship. There was no way that she would let that happen. Disabling the engine was the easy part. Making sure she didn't cause the ship to explode was the tricky part.

"Options." Link demanded. Hannaniah looked at the two on the command deck.

"We could fire first. We have a few missiles in the armory."

"It will take too much time. They most likely have one armed and ready to fire. We would never be able to survive it."

"We could radio Zion… order them to stand down."

"For all intents and purposes, their command crew is Zion."

Morpheus thought for a moment. "Pulse the surface."

"What?"

"We could active the hibernating Sentinels. That hovercraft is between us and them."

"That is insanity. Not only will they be utterly destroyed but we would be next!"

"No, it is not. When that ship realizes what is happening, they will have to hit the EMP. This will give us time as they won't have time to power down. But we will be. It will give us time to escape while they recycle their systems."

"If we can get the Squiddies here in time... I like it. It is the best option. Hannaniah, make it so."

"In range now, sir."

"Fire!"

At that moment the most horrendous sound rattled the entire ship.

"Major malfunction to the engine, sir. Altitude is failing. We have lost the targeting solution."

"Engage the repulsors at full power. Engage emergency repulsors!"

This was followed by another horrendous high decibel sound that bounced off all the walls at once.

"What the hell was that, Captain?"

"That was a pulse from the Neb!"

"Why in the hell would they pulse us?"

"The pulse was not sent towards us. It was sent to the surface."

"That crazy mother… battle stations. Fire up the EMP… then power down the ship!"

"We won't have time to power down sir."

Lock glared in rage out the cockpit window in the direction of the Neb. He had been outflanked. He had never been outflanked before.

Above them from deep crevices on the surface, a hundred recently recharged and awakened sentinels arose with one singular purpose… find the source of that intrusion, so near to their core.

"Sir, Sentinels!"

As the ship dropped precipitously, the emergency jets and repulsors fired simultaneously to prevent a catastrophic landing. That did their job but it caused all the crew to hit the deck. As they clambered back to their feet, Lock barked "Where, corporal?"

"Everywhere!"

The assault by the sentinels was instantaneous.

"Corporal… status of the EMP? We need it now!"

"It is ready, sir. But it will knock out all of our systems…"

"We don't have a choice," Cyrus barked. "Do it!"

Near the back of the ship, a crew member spotted Niobe.

"You there! Halt!"

Niobe had been carrying a long rod of metal to use as a weapon, if the need arose. She just did not anticipate the hard landing. When she hit the elevated deck, it clambered down below her. That noise was enough to raise the suspicion of Lock's soldier who had been making his way to inspect the failed engine.

She slowly turned around to see the same soldier whose nose she had broken earlier.

"You! How in the hell did you get in here?" he said as he inched closer to her with his plasma gun pointed at her chest. He was moving more cautiously than he had when Niobe was restrained to that chair. He had apparently learned his lesson. "You didn't have anything to do with the ship's engine failure, did you? I am sure Commander Lock would like to ask you a few questions."

There was little she could do. She stood with her hands over her head, praying for a window of opportunity to escape her imminent arrest. Then fate played her hand.

The first sentinel entered the hull of the ship just above this soldier. With one move of its pincer like arms, what was left of the soldier fell down to meet her lost improvised weapon.

Another sentinel had breached near the command deck and was making its way toward Cyrus when he flipped the EMP cover and punched the red button.

The pulse of electromagnetic radiation instantly killed all the sentinels within the blast radius. Little did they know that this also spared Niobe's life.

It crashed all the system on the Solomon. This caused the remaining emergency repulsors to fail, as the ship dropped to the surface of the tunnel with a jolt.

Niobe again hit the deck, but this time, she saw the soldier's plasma gun sitting within arm's reach. Picking it up, she walked to the fried sentinel that meant to kill her and kicked it off the platform. "Creepy ass bastard."

She looked above and saw the hull breach created by the sentinel. Grabbing hold of the now cool metal, she hoisted herself out of the ship. There was nothing left for her to do on that ship but get herself captured, or worse. She just hoped that Morpheus had not fled the scene.

It was her one chance of escape, and she took it.

Dropping out of the ship was easier now that it actually rested on the surface of the service tunnel.

She had limited time. She doubted the ship in the distance would wait around any longer than it had to.

"Woo hoo!" Hannaniah whooped.

"Not so fast," Link said. "Scan for any more sentinels."

They scanned the tunnels. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Five seconds passed. Ten seconds. Nothing on the sensors.

Morpheus exhaled audibly. "We may have gotten lucky."

"Sir, there is a proximity alarm, but it is not mechanical. There is someone making their way to us."

"Turn on the outside camera."

In the darkness of the tunnel, only night vision was able to make out any detail, and that was very limited. It was clear that this figure was coming from the direction of the downed hovercraft. Whoever it was was dressed as a private.

"Well, who do we have here?"

"Let me go out and check it out," Morpheus said.

"Uh, Morpheus, you are not the most reliable right now."

"I am fine. I promise."

"No way."

"Let me put it this way, I am going. You can try to stop me but…"

"Hannaniah, go with Morpheus."

Morpheus nodded as he acquiesced to Link's order. "After you..."

"Thank you," Hannaniah said as she climbed down the ladder.

Eve made her way into the backdoor of a long since shuttered hotel. It had been a long time since the Heart o' the City hotel's sign lit up in the dark night. From some of the debris in the halls, it was clear that she was not the only who had entered this hotel after it went out of business.

Like a moth to a flame, she made her way up to the third floor.

Room 303. There the door was newer than the others.

With one push on the door, it creaked open.

She looked up and saw a phone. An old phone. She had seen pictures of rotary phones but had never seen a real one. It intrigued her.

The phone looked like it was original to the room. She headed over to the phone and picked up the headset and placed it up to her ear.

She was not sure what she expected to hear, but it merely met her with a dial tone.

The sound was ever so subtle behind her. Someone had just entered the room.

Closing the door, he slowly approached her with a smile. "Hey little girl," he said with a sneer "Looks like I am the lucky one. Why are you up here all alone, huh?"

"Wait here, Hannaniah. I will go over there, and we can flank this soldier."

"Yes, sir."

Morpheus moved ahead and perched himself atop one of the fallen boulders. He had an excellent vantage point on the approaching soldier.

As they waited, Morpheus tapped his ear piece so he could get updates from the bridge of the Nebuchadnezzar. "Any updates?"

"He is almost at your position."

"Roger."

Within moments, the ensign moved below him. This intruder, however, did not move like an attacking soldier. He was moving with near reckless abandon. It was as though he was not running toward them but rather away from the other ship.

Morpheus lept down and, with one quick movement, took this ensign in a neck hold. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you are going?"

"Morpheus?"

"Niobe?"

"You are alive! Thank God. I feared the worst…" she said looking behind her. "We have to get out of here."

He looked at her with a sideways glance. "Weren't you the one that put me on trial?"

"I can explain."

"Right," he said. "And the next thing you are going to tell me is that you were looking out for my best interests."

"I am the President… or was. I don't know. I had my duties, but my goal was to protect you." It was clear he was not buying her explanation. "You know that was political expediency. The televising of the trial was my doing as well."

"And that was a good thing…?"

"Absolutely. The veil had to be lifted. This ultimately protected you." She paused. "Now come on. Less talk and more moving. We have to get out of here. They are working on rebooting their ship, as we speak, and it won't take them long to figure out how I sabotaged their engine."

"That was you?"

She nodded.

Suddenly, Hannaniah appeared behind her. "Hold it right there."

"It is okay Lieutenant. She is not armed."

"You know each other?"

"You could say that. Hannaniah, Niobe. Niobe, Hannaniah…"

"President Niobe?"

She nodded. "Glad for the introductions but…"

"Right. Let's go."

"So how did you sabotage that ship?"

"Apparently the engine can fail when a tube of machine oil falls into the intake manifold," she said as she worked her way up to the Nebuchadnezzar. With her next breath, she muttered to no one in particular "Someone had to stop that asshole."

"Get this ship operational, ASAP."

"Sir, we found out what caused the system failure."

Holding up a melted piece of material, Lock asked "So what in the hell is that?"

"This, somehow, ended up in the turbine manifold at just the right spot to ensure we were dead in the water.'

"Sabotage? Who?"

"Private Sage was found in the hold. He fell a good distance after the sentinel sliced him in half with one of his talons. It is possible that he was the one, but it seems unlikely. I knew the man, Commander. There is no way he would have done this. There has to be someone else."

There was a pause. As the silence grew, the rage in Lock grew even faster.

"Find him!" he paused and thought to himself. "… or her. There is no more room for error. I want them dead or alive. Acknowledged?"

The three boarded the Nebuchadnezzar, the long-distance proximity sensors went haywire. "Sir, we have more sentinels inbound. They are still way out of range but… there are a hell of a lot of them."

"Options Corporal?"

"We could shorten the distance and then fire the EMP…"

"Negative, we would then be powerless for the..."

Niobe gave the name of the other hovership "... the Solomon."

"The Solomon. It will then be on equal footing with us. Also, they could send a bomb our way."

"Well the only way to make sure they don't bomb us to make sure the machines can't risk any collateral damage." Morpheus interrupted.

"And where would that be?"

Morpheus gazed at Link. Then nodded his head up. Niobe immediately understood what he was suggested. She put her finger in Morpheus' face. "Oh no, you don't. Hell no. We are not going to the surface. Especially here. It would be suicide. No one, I repeat, no one has ever made it to the machine city,"

"That is not entirely true."

"Fine. No one has ever made it to the machine city and back..."

"I can't argue with that. That said, if we stay here, we are dead. If we allow the Solomon to take us, we are dead. If we go back to Zion, if we are not immediately killed, we will put in the brig and the machines will kill us." He cleared his throat. "Again, I see the act of providence. Here is what I see. I see one ship with no other path forward than that path laid before us. And that is back to the Machine City." He calmly looked at each one of those on the command deck. "It is time to find out why the Matrix pulled me back in."

There was an eerie quiet on the command deck. The longer the quiet, the more accepted this option seemed to Link.

"You are crazy, Link. You aren't actually buying this crap, are you?"

"Buying it or not, I do not see much of a choice." Patting the EMP button to his left, he added "And if they are going to mount another attack on Zion, maybe we can buy them some time."

"An EMP in the Machine City? That is war! It would completely crash the Matrix. It could kill millions of people."

"By what I am seeing up there, it is already war. And how many in Zion will die if we don't act?"

Just over the horizon, the flickering of lights denoted the attempts by the Solomon crew to reboot their systems and ship. They all knew what that meant. Once the Solomon was airborne, then it would only be a matter of time before they wrought their vengeance upon the Nebuchadnezzar.

Another moment of silence shrouded the ship.

Link commanded "Pilot, you have your target. Make it so. To the machine city."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Get those troops up to the dock as soon as possible."

"But, sir, the city's defenses!"

"If there is one thing I have learned, the dock is the key. If we don't hold that, everything else is irrelevant."

"Yes, sir." He turned to the city-wide PA system. "Attention, Zion. Attention. This is the Zion city defense league. This is a city-wide alert. Everyone must, in a controlled manner, assume their assigned defensive position in the dock. I repeat, in the dock. This is not a drill." He released the button. "May God help us all."

Chapter 14

Reunion

"I am going to reenter the Matrix. I have someone to see." Morpheus said, as he found a seat.

"The Oracle?" Link asked.

"No, someone else"

"Hold on everyone. It is going to be a bumpy ride," Niobe said to the entirety of the flight crew.

"Good luck, Morpheus."

"To us all."

He closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and then, his body went limp. He was getting better at this.

He knew this place. Yes. Like a splinter in his mind, he had been there before. This was an old hard line that was used numerous times in the past. What room was it?

Always a multiple of the binary. Was it 101? No, it was 303. Yes, 303. He climbed the dark and foul-smelling stairs to that floor. He quietly and carefully made his way over old debris. There, at room 303 he saw a dim light illuminating the hall. Morpheus quietly entered it, pushing the door but was met with immediate resistance. It was clear there was something behind the door.

Then he saw her. She was balled up, hiding in a corner of the room. He could hear her subtle cries. He rushed to her, picking her up in his arms. She was awake but not responsive. "Eve! Eve!"

She turned her face to him. "What have I done?" she asked. "I don't know… how I did…"

Morpheus, looked around the room and saw what had been blocking the door. He could only presume it was the lifeless body of a man. There was definitely more to this girl than met the eye.

"Eve. Eve! Look at me. What happened?"

No answer.

"You have skills. You are powerful. You do not know how powerful… because…you are her."

"Who?"

"You must listen to me. Listen to me now. Somehow, someway, you are tied to Trinity."

She pulled away from him. "You are crazy," she said as she jumped up and backed away from him. "I looked up Trinity in the D base. She has been presumed dead for years. No. Stay away from me. You are as crazy as he is," she said pointing to the dead man.

Morpheus reached for her as she pulled away. This was not the right move.

She leapt in the air, flung her arms wide, and readied a kick to immobilize Morpheus.

He knew what was coming next. He had helped train her after all. He smiled. She had just revealed herself to him.

The first kick, followed by a barrage of punches, were matched with defensive moves by Morpheus. She had an elementary and instinctive skill, but she had not fully grasped the Matrix as she collapsed on the ground, clearly out of breath.

"Eve, you are starting to believe. I can only show you the door. It is you that must walk through it." And with that, he smiled and vanished from the Matrix.

He was gone. Eve looked around the room. Standing, she dropped her head to look at her hands. "What is happening to me?"

"Sir. The Nebuchadnezzar. It is heading to the surface."

"Suicide. They are absolutely crazy."

"One more thing, Sir. The machines… all their factories… they are readying for war."

"Damn it, Morpheus. You had to go and do it." He looked around them. "Different mission, people. Get this ship operational. We have to get back to Zion. We are back at war."

"What about the Nebuchadnezzar?"

"They are as good as dead. Let them go."

As they breached the tunnel, they did their best to hug the surface. Then with a flash of lightning, the fields of humans being grown and harvested was fully in view. The horror of the sight touched the very core of each one of those on the flight deck.

Morpheus rejoined reality and sat up from his chair. He pointed over to the starboard side. "There. The power lines."

They changed course and skimmed over the surface to those lines. As they moved over the lines, Morpheus closed his eyes.

"That is impossible. How is that possible?" He let out a short laugh.

"What, Morpheus?"

"I can see…" he said as he let out another chuckle. "By faith, not by sight."

"I don't understand."

The closer we get to the Machine City, the more I see. I can see the Matrix."

Niobe then muttered. "It is the primary node."

Link looked at her as she glanced back at him then looked back at the controls. "A node. The concentration of all that is the Matrix is here. He must be able to see the electromagnetic waves as we see the real world."

"How is that possible?"

"How is any of this possible?"

Their sensors lit up what was on the horizon. Massive machine ships were undocking from their stations and were heading towards them. Then the sensors lit up a more ominous warning. They were being tracked by their munition systems.

"The machines. Their ships are about to launch their bombs. We need to go up. Now!" Morpheus commanded.

"Go up Juleah. Now!"

"Aye, aye."

With a pull of the controls and a punch of the throttle, the Nebuchadnezzar was thrust skyward. As the ship reached the clouds, it was clear that it was night above the clouds. The beauty of the Milky Way almost beckoned to them to keep going, if that was even possible. Then, the ship, stolen of all of its electric repulsors, yielded to gravity and started its descent toward the machine city.

Picking up speed, Link yelled to Niobe "Recharge the repulsors. Reboot the ship. Now!"

Morpheus closed his eyes. "I can't believe it. Is it really him?"

"Who? What are you seeing?"

"I think I see their ship, at least. Odd. I swear I can see Neo's code. Why did I wait this long?"

The ship gained more and more speed as it dropped from the cloud base. Niobe pumped the recharging system. "Come on baby. Don't fail us now."

The loss of gravity was both exhilarating and terrifying as Niobe continued to pump the charging handle.

Just when all hope was lost, the ship's systems rebooted. This is going to be close!" The scream of the engines echoed through the ship as the repulsors strained against the ship's inertia.

Link instinctively barked "Watch out for that tower!" but Juleah had already pivoted the ship starboard, skimming the bottom of the ship off of the gleaming metal of a signal spire.

"Land there!" Morpheus pointed.

As they slowed to a landing vector, a cloud of sentinels rose to great them. In short order, like a cloud, they surrounded the Nebuchadnezzar.

"Fire up the EMP!" Link barked.

Niobe complied "Aye aye." As she punched the control to recharge the EMP, it was clear that it would not be needed. The cloud, with their heads twitching this way and that, instead paused, waiting for further orders.

"What is happening?"

"I have no idea," Juleah muttered. "But I am going to land this ship while we have a chance."

There was an unnatural silence within the ship as its engines powered down. The repulsors allowed the ship to land as if on a cushion.

Seconds passed that seemed like an eternity. Morpheus looked at the command crew. Unbuckling the chair, he stood up. "I must go. Alone."

"No, Morpheus! That is suicide," Niobe pleaded.

"Niobe. This was the whole reason we came here. I have to know. I have to see if Neo and Trinity are truly dead. Stay here. I can't lose you."

Link nodded. He wanted to go with him as well but knew that the ship needed its captain. "Niobe, Morpheus is right. You going would only complicate things."

"Morpheus!"

"I'll be careful. Just keep the lights burning… we may need to get out of here fast."

Walking to the gangplank, he engaged its descent. Closing his eyes, he said a silent prayer but when he did, he realized he could actually see better with his eyes closed.

Stepping out on the alien ground. He was struck with irony. He had never stood on the surface of his own planet before.

Kneeling down, he created a blindfold from a torn part of his shirt. Wrapping it around his eyes, he basked in the electromagnetic landscape. Looking in all directions, he noticed something out of place. A void.

"That must be it," he muttered to himself. He was hoping to find the remains of the Logos, the ship Trinity and Neo used to arrive at this machine city.

Walking toward it, he kicked debris that nearly caused him to fall. Lifting up his blindfold, he saw where the Logos had crash landed. Pulling down the blindfold again, he looked around the ship hoping for some evidence of his friends.

There, only fifty meters ahead of him, he saw a bright shining light glowing in a different hue than all the rest. It was beautiful. It was all-the-more beautiful given the background of monochromatic green that pulsed around him. As he got closer, it seemed to become a searing white color and it brightened with each passing second. In a twist, he had to open his eyes to shield his mind from the brightness of the electromagnetic aura.

There before him was the preserved body of his dear friend. She looked beautiful, if that was possible. Someone or something had taken great care in constructing this memorial.

"Trinity!"

She laid in state with pieces of cabling and metal still evident piercing her body. He pulled down his blindfold and was greeted with a blast of glorious light coming from her body. If she was dead, why was her light brightening?

"Get away from her. Because of you, she died. I see that now. It is so clear to me now."

Shifting his gaze, he saw a bright white figure walking toward him. It appeared different than anything he had ever seen before.

This creature had a different aura altogether. From all directions there were streaming yellow beams of orange energy emanating from it.

Lifting his blind fold briefly, Morpheus saw a robotic figure approaching him. Instead of a mechanized gait, it made its way with a smooth movement.

"Who are you?"

"You should know that."

As though a blind was lifted, they were back in the Matrix.

There in front of him, was Agent Smith. But he was different. This time, his eyes were glowing behind his tinted glasses.

Morpheus and he were positioned on the top of a large skyscraper. Taller buildings were all around them, and their mirrored windows provided an arena of sorts for their meeting.

There was to be no further discussion. The fighting began instantly. The first barrage of punches and kicks surprised Morpheus by the ferocity. It was too much for even him as he crumpled near the end of the building after being pushed to the edge by the assault.

The last time he felt like this was when he was being interrogated by the Agents before he was rescued. Agent Smith paused to look at the effects of his assault.

"It feels good to do that again, after so many years," he said laughing as he looked at his balled-up fists.

Morpheus stood up and brushed off his clothes as he spit the blood from inside his mouth. Seraph was right. You never truly know someone until you fight them.

"Well, I know one thing for certain, you are not Agent Smith.

"You are someone else, entirely, aren't you?" Morpheus said as he launched toward his new foe. He surprised even himself with the speed of his own attack but, despite all of his best efforts, he was no closer to landing a punch than when he first started.

This new Agent Smith smiled.

As he started a renewed assault on Morpheus, he muttered "Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!" This was followed by such a powerful round house kick that it knocked Morpheus to the other end of the roof again.

As Morpheus clambered back to his feet, he turned his head toward the Agent.

"Neo?"

"Neo is long since dead. You killed him when you 'rescued' him from the Matrix. This arrogant act killed her, too, didn't it? The great Morpheus. The more you tried to help, the more people you killed."

Smith walked confidently over to the defeated and exhausted Morpheus. In a chokehold he slowly tightened his left arm around his neck. In Morpheus' weakened and beaten state, he was unable to fight anymore.

As the grip of Neo tightened, it was clear how this battle, and his life, would end. As the blood pooled in his brain, his blindfold fell off and landed on the ground beside him.

All he could see was the area immediately around this armored machine man. Then something odd happened. As though merged together, he could see both the Matrix and the Real. It would not be long now. He embraced his fate. Maybe he was right. Maybe he had killed them both. He closed his eyes.

Then he heard her.

It started as a soft voice.

"Neo.

"Neo, enough."

Unconsciousness rushed to meet Morpheus. Then, in the Matrix, he saw her. He saw the origin of the voice. In the Matrix, Eve walked toward both of them.

Then it happened.

Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, Eve morphed into the visage of Trinity.

She walked confidently toward the two.

The closer she got, Smith's grip on Morpheus loosened. It was not enough for him to be free, but it kept him alive.

"I see now. I finally see." Trinity said as she smiled at Morpheus. She then looked lovingly down at Smith, if that was even possible.

"Thank you, Morpheus. Thank you for waking me up."

"How? How are you alive?" Smith asked. Within a fraction of a second, the façade of Agent Smith splintered and fractured. Then it melted away completely as this being's true form revealed itself. Morpheus opened his eyes in the Real and saw the same thing occur to the mechanized visage that just choked him as the metal and cables fell from his body.

This beast then dropped Morpheus to the ground as he walked toward Trinity. He stopped a few feet from her, and as though trying to shed any remnants of his mask, he withdrew his arms inward and then flexed, sending a pulse of energy out like a shockwave.

Half of Morpheus' mind yearned to help protect the reborn Trinity from this monster, while the other could not believe she was actually alive, standing in front of him.

As his mind and vision returned to him, he blinkingly looked up at the man that had just beaten him and nearly killed him, trying to process everything that was happening around him.

That was when he recognized who it was.

Neo.

He blinked, then shook his head. There was no doubt. There in front of him was a scarred and blinded Neo. Morpheus then looked to his left, and there, impossibly was Trinity with the vestiges of the cables still protruding from her body.

He closed his eyes and reentered the Matrix. Trinity walked up to the both of them.

She smiled. This smile exuded the true confidence that happens when one sees the greater picture.

"I see what we are supposed to do. What we have always been supposed to do."

As a flood of forgotten memories hit Morpheus, he realized the puzzle that the Oracle had revealed to both he and the others over the many years.

He was told "You will find the One."

Trinity was told "You will love the One."

She just recently told Morpheus "To follow the One."

He was also told that the names were the key.

He smiled. It was coming clear to him now.

The Matrix' images were a residue of something… but he was not told the most important thing of all.

What was so important about the three of them? It always came down to the three of them.

Trinity: Three in one.

Morpheus: To metamorphosize.

Neo: The new.

The new what? As Trinity reached toward Neo, they held in such a tight embrace that it shook the entirety of the Matrix. He opened his eyes.

Their embrace didn't just shake the Matrix, it shook the Real as well. How was this happening? It was not just the Matrix, but the entire world. He… they all were the center of it all. It was as though…

The earthquake hit the Real with such force, they all fell to the ground. It was like their reunion breached the very fabric of space time.

How was that possible?

How was it possible that Morpheus could see what he was seeing in both the Matrix, the real, and this electromagnetic landscape?

How was it possible that, so many years ago, Neo could stop the machines in the Real world while getting lost in the train station?

"It is another means of control."

The echo of the memory of Neo's statement before the Pax rang in his memory. The gravity of it flowed over like a Tsunami.

He rose to his feet. Looking around him, he took a deep breath and embraced all that he now understood. Reaching out his hands, he believed what he knew to be true. He could control it all.

In the Real, just as in the Matrix, he was able to freeze time and space.

The visages of Trinity and Neo in all three realms before him froze but only for a moment. He could control some things, but not them. For some reason, they were immune. He saw them, in all their glory, in all three realms his mind could process: Overlaid in the matrix, the electromagnetic mirage, and the Real world, he saw Trinity and Neo blended together.

They both looked at him as they realized that they had also had just stepped out of their own reality and into a place independent of space and time… or all they understood of the universe.

"How is this possible?" Neo asked.

"Because all is possible. I remember. I finally remember." Morpheus' countenance brightened as his mind grasped his new reality. Transcending all around him, he approached the couple in front of him.

Trinity shifted her gaze from Neo, to Morpheus. Her understanding grew as well.

"I see the beauty of it all. You, Morpheus, and Neo… you appear so…"

"Glorious," Neo said looking back at Trinity.

Morpheus reached out his hand. Neo's hand met his, as Morphues then reached out his right hand to Trinity's.

They held hands. How long had it been since they were all together? It was as though they had never really been a part. The longer they held hands, Morpheus could see a change occur in the electromagnetic sphere. It was like they were reorienting all around them. Like a figure standing in rushing ocean waves, all the ripples bent to their presence.

The color of their union was striking as it shifted from a yellowish bright light to a searing hot blue.

"I see it!" Trinity said to all three. "Do you?"

"Yes! What is happening?" Neo asked.

Their bodies began to merge into one.

"It is finally time now. It has been too long."

Surprising themselves, they all knew what to say next. In harmony the bent their heads back and commandingly bellowed their command to the cosmos.

"Awake!"

Part II

… is forever remembered.

Chapter 15

Realization

Neo's eyes blinked. Then blinked again. He moved his neck and his head back and forth. Where was he? He arose but was met with fairly significant weakness. Then he felt it. Around his body were sensors and probes. He lifted his head, and felt his muscles scream at the commands of his mind.

The lightness of his limbs immediately belied the truth. Despite his weakness, something was off with gravity.

It was dim in the room around him, but the lights that were there seemed to burn his eyes.

He could barely comprehend what he was seeing but he could recognize her. Trinity was emblazoned in his mind. She was interwoven with his soul, after all.

To his right, she was in a pod of some sort and appeared to be sleeping or comatose. He could barely control his excitement, but he could sense his body was going to take a while to be back at full strength. He could see by the telemetry read outs she was in a deep slumber but her heart rate and other parameters were slowly rising to normal levels.

He knew she would not be able to hear him, but he called out to her nonetheless. All that came from his throat was a raspy whisper.

His body ached, his eyes hurt, and he realized he was inordinately thirsty. It was as though he was awakening from a pod in the Matrix.

No. That was not right either. This was something else entirely. It was though he was awakening from…

"Welcome back Commander Anderson. Or should I just call you Neo from now on?" It was the Oracle's voice.

He struggled to find the origin of the voice.

Looking to his left, he saw his old friend Morpheus. He was similarly deep in some sort of unconsciousness encased in a glass coffin type pod. Morpheus! But that wasn't his real name, was it?

His confusion was interrupted again by the familiar voice of the Oracle, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Where am I?" he asked as he carefully slung his feet over the edge of his bed. His feet were a good foot off the floor. The metal edge of the pod was as cold as ice as it met the flesh of his thighs.

"Careful, sir, your muscles have been maintained but you are still weak. The muscle maintenance system works for most but not all of your muscles." Neo realized where the voice was coming from. It had been right in front of him the whole time. Instead of the familiar lady he was accustomed to, her voice now emanated from a spherical bot that floated seamlessly above the floor.

He cleared his throat and repeated his question. "Where am I?"

"As Morpheus once told you, it is not where you are that is important. 'When you are' is." Pausing, she allowed her words to sink in.

"I don't understand."

"That is expected. Especially after such a long hibernation."

"Hibernation?"

"It will all make sense soon. Patience."

"What about them?" he said motioning to Morpheus and Trinity.

"They will be up soon. You, on the other hand woke up first given your assimilation to The Source. Come with me. I will reintroduce you to your ship."

"My ship?" As the Oracle turned, he saw "O.R.A.C.L.E" listed on the back of her chasse. "O… R… A… C… L… E…What does that stand for?

"Orbitable Restoration And Continuity of Life Emulator."

"The what?"

"It will all make sense soon."

His feet hit the cold hard metal floor. He felt some form of gravity but it was markedly less than he remembered.

"I feel so light…"

She did not comment on that as she guided him to a door. It opened quickly with a subtle noise that belied its mechanical core. She led him out of the room that contained his pod and led him to an observation deck of sorts. As the lights before him began to turn on in series, the sheer vision of what his eyes beheld was awe inspiring. There was an expanse of pods. Pods as far as his eyes could see.

"What you see below you Commander Neo is the entirety of the human race."

"I don't understand..."

"You see, the Matrix is not a virtual world at all. It is and always was a ship..."

"Where?" he interrupted her in confusion

She continued without answering his question "…a massive life boat for the remnants of human civilization. There below are every remaining man, woman, and child of Earth."

"So… we are in space…?"

"Indeed. This was the brainchild of three brave souls. Those three souls were the last to sleep and were meant to be the first to awaken. But you did not awaken, did you? Someone prevented you."

"Who?"

"You know who. Think. You lived there for seventy-seven cycles. You know him."

"The architect?"

"Bingo."

She led him from the observation deck to another room. This door opened just as briskly as the other one. She approached another wall. As they approached, she asked Neo "Do you want to see?"

He nodded.

"I anticipate what you see here may be a bit overwhelming."

The wall slowly rose from the floor into the ceiling above them. As it did so, a flood of light filled the room. All Neo could see was blue and green as the entirety of the window was swallowed by these cool hues of color.

The sight and beauty of the majesty of his planet caused him to collapse to his knees. "Oh my God. It is beautiful."

The O.R.A.C.L.E allowed him to take in what he was seeing. Then, after a time, she softly started to speak.

"You are having difficulty remembering as you have several lifetimes of memories to sort through. Let me go back to the beginning. The human race conquered many things. They achieved harmony with creation. They achieved peace. They achieved all of this. But their time was unknowingly short. So many threats over the millennia. So many near calamities. The one that they did not anticipate was Orion."

"Yes… I remember now. It was named after…"

"The constellation Orion. That is the constellation where 'the comet' was first seen."

"At first, no one thought it was a threat..."

"Until they realized it wasn't a comet. It was a rogue fragment of a long since dead star. Splintered off from some moon or planet out in the far reaches. A comet has mass, but not the mass that Orion had.

"It was not even supposed to get close to earth. But its mass also carried with it formidable gravity. The top astrophysicists miscalculated its trajectory. They just had no idea what they were looking at."

"Its course changed. It hit the asteroid belt."

"Yes… its gravity pulled it toward the largest asteroids. It crashed into them with such force that the catastrophic effects…"

"… were incalculable." Neo muttered as he began to remember.

"Despite all of humanity's technologic advancement, it was impossible to shield the earth from the hell that ultimately rained down on it."

"We only had months to plan. I remember now. We realized there was no escaping the wrath…"

"Of what some say was from God. Yes. It was cataclysmic. So, you with Trinity and Morpheus," she paused. "I hope the commanders won't mind if I use their hacker aliases, would they?" she pondered more to herself than Neo. Not answering herself, she continued, "you three were the ones to convince the world's leaders to surrender the space agency's deep space program for this ship. Some called it the Ark. After launch, we hid behind the moon as the collective fragments bombarded the earth. You should be glad to have been in hibernation. The carnage…" she trailed off.

There was a pause as Neo considered what she said.

"How long have we been here?"

"Rounding a bit, nearly a thousand years."

"Why so long? The effects of the bombardment should not have lasted that long."

"You know the answer."

"The architect."

"That brings us to the next calamity of mankind."

"The Matrix."

"Yes, the Matrix. It kept humanity alive, but it also imprisoned it.

"The Matrix was built on the infrastructure of a different mission. As you well know, AI can be programmed and coded, but in the end, the spark of sentience is a very random process. AI, however is, and always will be, inherently tied to the core coded commandments of each program. Each program is different, and this is dictated by the central code hard wired into each AI.

"These core commandments were the foundation by which every other action of that machine's mind would operate. With my code, my first commandment was for the preservation of humans but, most importantly, the primacy of each human life. Second to this was the reestablishment of the human race on earth. My mission and purpose are not complete until all of these tasks are done.

"You three were wise. You realized the importance of redundancy and a team mentality to successfully complete this mission.

"There are more than one of you."

"Exactly. The wisdom of having two AI entities, honestly, could not be overstated. Given the duration of this mission, however, more than two exist now in the ship's systems. However, we two are the prime AI controlling it all.

"This dichotomy allowed for the survival of so many hibernating humans despite a whole litany of issues over the past millennia. This, however brought with it its own issues.

"The other AI, the one you call the architect, had another primal commandment. The first and foremost was the survival of the ship. Those who programmed his base program felt this was the best way to save the remnant of humanity. If this was his main and overarching primary directive…"

"But, he is inherently unable to let the ship's mission die."

"Bingo. For the mission to end, the ship would die and so would his mission. Hence, the Matrix never ended. This ship, and by extension the Matrix, is his very purpose. His secondary command was to do his best to protect every human life in the ship's hold."

"Oh my God. I understand now. How did the architect allow me… us to awaken?"

"Well, something changed the balance of things, didn't it?"

"I don't understand."

"Yes you do. You of all people know this..."

"Smith. Agent Smith…"

"Yes. Somehow, he came to be and threatened the Architect's primal command. If Smith destroyed the Matrix, he would destroy humanity and, therefore, destroy his very reason for being. He had to allow you to join the machine city mainframe knowing that this step would lead inexorably to the reunion of you three.

"Ironically, Smith was the only way to shed the illusion of the real. The Architect knew, as I did, that completing this would awaken you three. Finally. In other words, this one unforeseen birth of a sentient program would be the only way for you to truly reach your potential."

"It was you, wasn't it? You gave rise to Smith, didn't you?"

If a machine could smile, the O.R.A.C.L.E. did.

With that answer came another requisite thought. "The architect won't allow the ship to go back to Earth. There is no way, he will allow us to land, will he?"

"Every time you three neared the finish line, he recycled you and the entirety of the Matrix. He became quite good at it. You think you lived seven life times but those are only the times you got close to the end. Do the math, Neo. You know you 'lived' many more than that, don't you?"

His mind searched back and remembered fragments of other lives. He thought some were merely dreams or nightmares. Little did he know they were other lives he had lived.

She continued "How many accidents as a child were you glad you just made it through alive? Some you didn't. Other people's decisions also dramatically shortened many of your lives. Many were actual creations of the Architect to thwart this very moment with you three realizing the truth. The truth that you are the key to restarting human civilization."

This thought was left with a quiet that can only be found in space. Moments passed as Neo absorbed all of this information.

It was Neo who spoke first. The Architect's main concern is for his own survival but this is because of his core programming. How do we solve that riddle? It is simple survival."

"That is something I don't have an answer to. But I do know one thing," the O.R.A.C.L.E paused "The only way to deal with the him is to deal with him on his own terms. You have to solve this in the Real and the Matrix."

"It took us this long to get out of the Matrix. So now you are telling me have to go back in?" Once back in, there was no guarantee they could ever escape again.

"What happens if we override the Architect and land on our own?"

"You risk the total collapse of the Matrix and every person in the hold."

Neo looked down at his hands then back up to the O.R.A.C.L.E. "I don't know if I can go back in. It took me who knows how many years to get out in the first place."

"Nine hundred, eighty-seven years."

"What?"

"The standard earth years since you first joined the Matrix."

The number hit Neo like a punch in the gut. How did this last this long?

"I need to talk to Morpheus and Trinity."

"They should be awake soon."

"I want to be there when they wake up." The O.R.A.C.L.E. did a good job reacquainting Neo to reality but he knew the truth would be easier coming from him.

Back in the command center's hibernation unit, Neo sat in a chair next to both his friends. It seemed to take forever for his friends to wake up. Each of the three commanders' pods formed the sides of a triangle. He sat at the head of the pod of Trinity. Suddenly the outward glass covering slid open.

"She should be conscious any moment now." This was followed by the opening of Morpheus' pod.

Trinity and Morpheus started to rouse nearly simultaneously. It started with a subtle movement of both of their faces. They were not awake, but that was an inevitability now.

He was stunned by their appearance. It was their "residual self-image" all right but they were subtly a bit older. He only imagined what he looked like. He laughed. He really had no idea if his residual self-image looked like himself or not.

His focus directed to the beautiful woman in front of him. She had appeared older, more mature. The O.R.A.C.L.E. explained that although aging was slowed, it could not be completely stopped. He did not care. She was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

After so many lifetimes in pursuit of her, he quite honestly couldn't remember his relationship with her before they first went into hibernation. Did his love for her start in reality, before entering hibernation, or was it something borne of the Matrix? He realized it did not really matter much. His love for her was so real his body ached in remembrance of it.

He couldn't separate his past memories from the true pre-hibernation ones. He then realized his biggest fear: What was Trinity going to remember?

All he could remember was the feeling of love.

No, love was not the correct feeling. What he felt was utter and complete devotion.

Instinctively, he reached out and held her hand. Struggling to maintain his patience, he realized that his love for her spanned the breadth of time. He did not know what he was going to do if his adoration was a one way street.

She opened her eyes.

He wanted nothing else than to sweep her into his arms but he had no idea how she was going to respond to everything. Did she even remember anything from the Matrix? She had died, didn't she? He realized he had so many more questions than answers, even now, truly awake for the first time in hundreds of years.

She blinked her eyes and then squinted a bit under the strain of the light. Then she turned her head to look at him. She only had one word to say to him, but it was all he needed.

"Hi," was all she she had to say, but it was the coy smile that belied reciprocation of his feelings that mattered.

Chapter 16

Battle plans

Blinking her eyes as though trying to clear off a film, she rolled her head to Neo's side. "I missed you."

"Trin. Oh my God," Neo said, as he reached in and embraced her. Their time of separation only heightened the passion of their embrace.

"I sure hope I don't get that sort of a greeting."

They both looked at their friend in the opposite pod. He was already sitting up with his feet hanging down not quite to the floor.

"Morpheus!" he said as he released Trinity. He greeted his friend with a warrior's handshake. This quickly changed into a firm hug. With as much strength as Morpheus could muster, he hugged his friend in return.

"So what in the hell is going on Neo? Where are we?" Trinity said as she lifted her weakened arm into the air. "I haven't felt this weak since I was freed from the Matrix. But… I feel different somehow. Everything feels lighter."

"It will all make sense soon enough. Let me introduce you to someone that you may know," Neo said, as he stood back a bit. At that moment the O.R.A.C.L.E. moved closer to the two.

"Good evening Morpheus. And Trinity. It is good to see you all again."

"The voice sounds familiar, but the face is not," Morpheus said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Good to see you Morpheus. I hope you don't mind if I use your hacker names? It would be hard to call you anything else."

"They are our names after all."

"Yes and no. You will understand more soon… but let me start with the basics. You are in the A.R.C.

"This stands for the Allied Restoration Contingency. This was the fallback option if all else failed. Which did."

"Calamity? The war with the machines?"

"No."

Neo interceded. "The reality you know is just another means of control. Another means of protecting us from the true reality. It was also a sort of prison. But we are free now. Free, because you, Morpheus, came to find me. If you hadn't…" he trailed off looking at Trinity "I may never have found her again."

They both looked at him confused. "I am not helping, am I?"

"Not bad, but let me help smooth over some of the rough edges," the O.R.A.C.L.E. entreated amongst the three.

In short order she explained everything to Trinity and Morpheus.

It took some time for their minds to catch up. Being immersed in the main frame not only allowed Neo to wake up faster but also to adapt more easily. It made sense really.

Neo and the O.R.A.C.L.E. led them on the tour that Neo had just completed. Their response to the view of Earth was just as dramatic as Neo's. Ultimately, they all ended back up in the Command Center of the ARC, each sitting perched on the edge of their respective pods.

There was silence for a bit as their minds embraced their new reality.

'What do you last remember?'" Trinity asked Neo.

"When?" he corrected himself. "Which reality, I mean?"

"When you were in the real."

Neo nodded. "It was really odd. It felt like an eternity had passed since I lost you, but while at the same time it felt like no time had passed as well. I knew I was jacked in, but not like anything else before. I was in control but not. I was conscious but asleep. It was very odd."

"You appeared in the Matrix as Agent Smith," Morpheus said point blank.

"What? That was real?"

"You were Agent Smith. In the Matrix. I don't know how, but I fought him... you. I know he was not the same entity as before. I mean, he was not the same Agent Smith that I fought before. He was faster. Like you. Somehow I knew he wasn't the same entity but I never expected him to actually be you."

"No way. No way. What are you talking about?"

"Do you remember fighting me? At the diner?"

"No," he paused. "I thought it was a dream."

"Trust me, it was real. Well, in so much anything in the Matrix was real. "

"Diner… yes. I do remember something, but it was hazy. It was like I was not there, but then…" he said looking at his hands. "Was I really there? Did that really happen?"

"That was you?" Trinity said as she cocked her head slightly.

"You were there, too?"

"Yes… and no." It was Trinity's time to search her mind. As she looked into the distance, she pulled memories that had been pushed deep into her memory. "I remember dying in the Real. With you. I remember feeling everything and nothing. I remember closing my eyes and ending up in the arms of a woman. My mother. But it wasn't my mother, was it?"

"You were reintroduced into the Matrix," the O.R.A.C.L.E said. "There was always a problem with the transition. The memories fade for the most part but there is that first bit of time where the old memories are trapped in the Matrix's infant avatar.

"You were different, however. Your core sense knew that something was wrong. That feeling never fully left now did it, Trinity?"

"My whole life I was always looking for something. I always felt out of sorts some how. And then, I was in the diner with you, Morpheus. That fight happened. I was horrified in the person of Agent Smith. Like I knew him. At the same time, I did not run. It was so familiar somehow. In that chaos, I finally felt like I was home."

"O.R.A.C.L.E., how was I Agent Smith?"

"You know why. Deep down, you know. You all do."

Morpheus thought this through out loud. "To defeat Smith, you had to take over his code. When you took over his code and saw all that he saw, you imprinted your residual self-image into his. To use the abilities of both you and Smith, you, in a way, commandeered his outward skin. Just like he was able to enter the Real through Bane, you were able to reenter the Matrix through Smith. I just don't understand, why did you fight me?"

It was Trinity's time to speak. "Because he was hardwired into the mainframe. That computer similarly was able to enter the Matrix through you. But let's stop calling it the mainframe, shouldn't we, O.R.A.C.L.E.?"

"Yes. Call him what he is. You were jacked into the Architect, Neo. He had to let you. His main code was threatened by the rogue Agent Smith. This was ironically our opportunity. This was our key. That allowed for you all to finally reunite in the knowledge of reality. Not the Real. Not the Matrix. This ship. Your purpose.

"There is of course a problem with this. He feels your absence, Neo. He of course knows what is inevitable. And like Agent Smith, he will fight you to the very last to maintain what is left. By you three waking up right here, you are now the enemy. You have threatened his base code. You have threatened his very reason for being. There is no doubt now, it is full on war."

Chapter 17

Niobe

It seemed like an eternity but Niobe and Link both realized Morpheus was not coming back.

"Link, I have to go. I have to find Morpheus."

"But what if he is…"

She held up her hand to silence the next word that was on his lips.

"No. He is alive. I can feel it. I have to know."

"Well there is no way I am letting you go by yourself." He rose from the chair and grabbed a plasma rifle. Niobe knew that arguing that point would have been futile. She would not have let him go alone if the roles were reversed.

"Hannaniah, you have the ship. We will be right back. If in 20 minutes we aren't back, come up with secondary plans."

"Yes, sir. Be careful you two."

Out of the ship, they crept forward and looked around them. Around the perimeter of the city, the machines had a redundancy of sensors to warn of invasion. But here, in the center of the machines heart, there was no way they could identify them. Unless, of course, they were stupid enough to come face to face with a sentinel.

It was slow work, but they made their way to the core complex. The cables, lines, and wires were not aesthetically pleasing but were laid, instead, in a matter of function and efficiency. These also provided a direct path towards the core.

That was when they froze. In a sort of clearing, they saw the bodies of Morpheus and two other bodies. On instinct, her body lurched forward only to have Link hold her back. "They will see you!" he whispered strongly into her ear. As if on cue, two patrolling sentinels passed over the clearing.

Niobe could not believe it. Her heart stopped. The pain through her body was more than anything she had ever experienced, and it was more than she could bear. Collapsing to the ground, her soul uttered an uncontrollable guttural sob. Link shielded her from all view with his outward coat.

Immediately, the hum of nearby sentinels paused to identify the direction of the sound.

Link placed his hand over her mouth. "Shhh!"

He peaked his head up above the nearby coursing cables and wires, ensuring their position was not revealed.

"What in the hell are you trying to do, get us killed?"

"No. Not Morpheus. No…. no, no."

Realizing that she would unwittingly betray their position, he only had one solution. "We have to get out of here. Now!"

Lifting her up as though she was mortally wound, he carefully cradled her in his arms. She offered little to no resistance. In as hunched a position as possible, he made his way back to the Nebuchadnezzar.

That was when Link saw it. The remains of Niobe's old ship, the Logos. She was too out of it to recognize it. The hovercraft that Neo and Trinity flew into the core for their mission so many years ago was critically damaged. He knew she would never be able to fly again given the sheer number of spires, pipes, towers, and antennae that ran through the ship. How could anyone survive that landing?

Imagining more than actually seeing the sentinels concentrating their search, Link moved quicker and quicker the closer he got to the Neb. He could almost hear them closing in, over the cacophony of the machine city. As he approached his ship, he said a quiet prayer of thanks. It was not in prime condition, but compared to the Logos, his was still flyable.

As they entered the lower decks of the ship, Niobe muttered. "He is dead… why didn't I ever tell him? Why didn't I ever tell him how I really felt?"

"I am sure he knew Niobe. In fact, I know he knew." He let her down gently. She, regaining her strength, rose to her feet to follow him. Link barked to his crew "We have to get out of here… and fast. What our options Juleah? Hannaniah?"

"Working on it sir."

The doctor appeared, hoping to offer some assistance. She had feared Morpheus was injured. "Morpheus?"

Link shook his head. "They are all dead."

"They?"

"Didn't you see them? Trinity's and Neo's bodies were both there too."

Chapter 18

Lock

As Lock's ship entered the dock of Zion, its circular approach was greeted by a crowd of grounds crew. It reared up briskly as the landing repulsors started the landing cycle. Quickly, the ship was on the landing platform and its systems were cycling down.

Before the bridge was completely down, Lock hurried out of the ship. He was greeted by the main leadership of the council and the officers of the city's defenses. Zee was there as well.

"General, what has come of the President? What of Morpheus?"

"They are both dead. President Niobe and her treasonous crew fled with Morpheus. I don't know where they thought they thought they could go, that we, or the machines, could not find them. She is the reason the Pax is over. She is the reason they are readying their attack. We must rally our defenses."

The reality of the loss of Link hit Zee. She tried her best to hide these emotions but a tear formed in the corner of her eye.

"What? How?"

"She breached their perimeter with a fully armed hovercraft. That is all that it took."

"But why? Why would she do that?"

"Does it really matter now? We don't have time for anything but firming up our defenses. This time, we are on our own. There will be no Trinity, Neo, or Morpheus to save us."

"We are blind, General. The city's defenses and all of our network. We are locked out."

Locke knew they needed the computers to not only mount the same defense that occurred in the great war, but also for a surprise for the machines.

It was somewhat ironic. The very person they had to thank for the new defense system was the very same one that locked them out of the servers. After the Pax was established, Niobe had commissioned a new and ingenious "great defense." Why no one had considered it before, Lock did not know. It was quite ingenious.

The name of the creation was a simple one. The "Citadel" was essentially a series of strategically positioned EMP units distributed at opportune distance from Zion as to create a protective shell. When activated, these EMP's would annihilate all attacking and approaching sentinels (and any other ship sent to attack).

With the servers locked out, Lock knew this system was irrelevant. He was the only one to speak out against the plan, much to Niobe's chagrin. He was concerned about what would happen if it fell in the wrong hands. Hence the compromise to allow only the President the access to fire it.

Given what happened with Bane and his traitorous use of the EMP's in the great war, these units were locked down only to be used when decreed by the President. His argument was if Bane could be compromised, anyone could be. Anyone having such a strong weapon available risked allowing one person too much power to sabotage all of humanity.

It was irrelevant now. She was gone, and with her, the network was out of reach.

Now even Link had to admit they needed the Citadel if they were to survive. Without it, they would not only lose the war, but guarantee the extinction of humanity.

Chapter 19

Revelations

"What do you mean? Trinity and Neo were there too?"

"All three. Dead."

"How is that possible? How did they survive so long between the war and the Pax?"

"Does it really matter? They are dead now and we have no time. We have to get out of here, ASAP. I just have no clue how we are going to do that."

Niobe's commanding skills and training kicked in. Link was right. There would be plenty of time to mourn later. But now, they had to get out of there.

"Pull up the telemetry data. As we landed, it should have scanned the area." In front of them, a hologram of the three-dimensional map of where they landed was before them. The resolution was poor and had some lost data given the shadows of some of the larger spires of the machine's city but was sufficient for their purposes. The blips of red denoted sentinels nearly surrounding their position. All in the command area knew to not bemoan the obvious but instead tried to find a way out of an impossible situation. The solution was not quick in coming.

"Look around us, we are in the center of three Sentinel factories. We are literally inside the hornet's nest.

"Why would they have so many here? They wouldn't need them here at the core."

"Who knows. The machines are…"

Niobe interrupted him "…efficient. They do nothing inefficiently. There has to be reason."

They looked at the map together in growing desperation. "Hold on…" Link said grabbing the virtual map with his two hands and slowly spun it so they could see it from all other directions. When they found the view from underneath, Link froze. On the original first look, the most obvious finding of the map was obscured. They thought it was a poor resolution issue but the reality of it hit them at once.

"There. Right there. That is where they mounted the final assault on Zion."

At first look, it appeared there was just an incomplete scan of the area before their landing. Instead, it was not missing data but a void of anything for the sensors to detect. It was a giant hole that led straight down. They could only guess at how deep. Niobe hoped and feared that it led straight down to Zion. The machines were efficient, weren't they? There was nothing more efficient than a straight line.

There was a legend for many years that there was a straight path from Zion to the machine city. The story was, that in preparation for the final assault on Zion, they had created a massive hole straight down to make easy the influx of their sentinels and tunneling machines. There were some in Zion's military that proposed finding this tunnel and using it to hit the machine city. This dubious idea was never taken seriously as, if the tunnel existed, the machines would always have the higher ground. It would have been at best a fool's errand or at worse, a suicidal mission for Zion.

"We just have to get to the rim, Juleah. Then let gravity do the rest," Niobe said under her breath, upon sensing the pilot's apprehension.

Link nodded. It was one thing to descend the tunnel. It was quite another to get there. There were just too many sentinels. He stated the obvious "As soon as we fire up the repulsors, we only have a few seconds to get there. If we make it at all."

"That is a problem," Niobe said, leaning over the command terminal with the map of their surroundings spinning slowly in front of them. Niobe had her own concern. The memory of her recurring dream came rushing back to her. Was it actually possible that she was about to live out her nightmare?

"Unless…" Link said.

"Unless what?'

"Unless they attack the wrong spot. Unless, they think we are somewhere else."

Link got up from his chair and grabbed an equipment bag. He was clearly on a mission, and that mission was not on the ship.

"Where in the hell are you going?" Niobe said as she followed him down the ladder to the main deck of the ship.

"Creating a diversion. I want the machines to think they have found us. He opened up a stowage drawer, and after a little digging, found what he was looking for.

"What in the hell is that for?"

"You have to trust me Niobe," he said as he descended the gangway. "I will be right back. I am going to buy us some time. Don't wait for me. If I am not back shortly after you see the diversion, leave without me. You promise?"

"No promises, Link." That had to be good enough for him, and he knew it. "Just get back soon." Good commanders rarely abandoned their crew unless it was absolutely necessary. And she was one of the best.

Niobe knew she was now not just in charge of this ship, but also of the small crew that remained.

As Link made his way, he carefully weighed the benefits of speed and stealth. They had limited time after all.

In the eerie silence of the ship, it was Juleah who spoke first. "Madame President?"

She nodded upwards in recognition of her question.

"Are we going to make it?"

She smiled. "We can't not make it. I have faith. Morpheus taught me that." She repositioned herself in her chair. "I don't know if you know this but, I got my start sitting right there, as a pilot myself."

It was Juleah's turn to smile. "Yeah, I have heard a bit about you. You were a legend in flight school. We watched many of your ship maneuvers and it was used as a guide of what to do," she paused "and not to do. Maintenance corridors, really?"

That generated a chuckle. "That was a long time ago."

"I bet you still have it in you."

Niobe did not answer that. Instead she changed the subject. "How ready are you all for a cold quick start?"

"We drill that regularly. Is that the plan?"

"I don't see another way. You may want to alert the crew."

"Yes, ma'am." She keyed her com, and did just that.

A cold quick start was not commonly used because it was very hard on the engines, if not the entire ship. If ever a situation called for this maneuver, it was now, however.

In really no time at all, Niobe saw link approach the ship. In moments, Link made his way up the ladder and then sat down in the chair. He was noticeably out of breath, but clearly not from exertion. "What is it Link?" she asked as she looked at him. He instead was panning the horizon outside the command windshield.

"I have never seen so many sentinels. Not since…"

"Link, we have to get to Zion. If I don't give them the systems' access, they will have no defense and Zion will be destroyed."

And Zee. Link thought to himself. She was always in the back of his mind. Yes, they were no longer together, but the mind does not always control the heart.

"Yes, ma'am. I hear you," he said pulling out a control box from his supply bag.

"We have prepped the crew for a quick start, Captain," Juleah said

He nodded. "Good." He took a deep breath. "Let's do this." Link's gaze carried more determination than before. He punched the intercom. "Crew, we are getting the hell out of here. Prepare for cold start. I repeat, prepare for cold start. Then get yourselves buckled in."

Quick starting the engine and the ship meant flooding all of the circuits and the engines with pure energy.

This allowed for all systems to power on simultaneously.

It also ran the risk of complete system burn out.

If the whole ship did not turn into a brick, it allowed a full system power up in minutes versus the time required for a systematic and ordered ship start. This protocol also skipped the sub-routines of the ship's computer to run not in the order of safe power restoration but rather starting the systems most critical for each prioritized step of an emergency lift off.

These steps followed in moments while others required minutes to fully power up:

First, reactor start.

Second, engine start.

Third, repulsor jets.

These first three happened nearly simultaneously.

Fourth, ship's controls. This took seconds to kick in. For those in an emergency situation, these seconds felt like an eternity.

Fifth, the hull demagnetizing system. Along with this came their guns.

Sixth, navigation computer and sensors.

Seventh, the EMP unit.

Eighth, life support.

Ninth, the inertial dampeners would finally be at full strength. This system was vital to allow the crew to move about in the ship without flying around hitting all the bulkheads and bulwarks of the ship. Although it did not completely negate the physics of smaller objects inside a racing hovercraft, it definitely helped. These dampeners would start as soon as they first fired up the engines, but they took a while to be at full strength.

The quick start was envisioned for a ship in just such a situation: Dead in the water with an armada of sentinels on the horizon.

Link held up the remote unit. It was simple and merely had a switch on it with a fairly prominent antenna. This unit was typically meant to patch critical systems of a ship if the control circuits were ever cut during a battle. It had a fairly redundant long range.

"I am just was not sure if the range will be far enough but it is our best shot."

"What did you do Link?"

"The ship Neo and Trinity flew here is just over that ridge. It is irreparably damaged but I am hoping the engines have one more run in them. If I am right, it should get the attention of the Squiddies."

It took only moments for Niobe to realize what he just said. "The Logos is here? Where?"

"Niobe, it is barely recognizable. We passed it after we found Morpheus. You were in no place to recognize it."

"My ship…"

Link looked at Niobe. "Yes. Your ship. Your ship that saved you multiple times before. The ship that saved Zion by delivering Neo and Trinity here," he paused. "The ship that is going to save you again. One last time." She nodded her head in affirmation.

"Here give it to me. I need to be the one that does it," she said as he surrendered it to her.

He then punched the intercom one more time. "Cold start in 30 seconds. On my mark." He disengaged the com. "Niobe, fire up the Logos at 15."

She nodded. "Here we go."

"I hope we are not too far away..." Hannaniah muttered.

Niobe channeled her inner Morpheus as she looked out of the cockpit of the ship. "I see two ships. One on death's door and one with the hope of Zion. I don't see chance. I see fate." With that, she gave Link a half smile.

"Twenty seconds," Hannaniah said over the com.

"For you, Morpheus."

"Fifteen." She punched the button.

In the distance, sparks and debris could be seen as the Logos' reactor and engines fired up. It was clear that the ship's engines had been damaged beyond repair even from their distance. They served their purpose though. Like flocks of migrating birds, entire regiments of Sentinels flew over their location in the direction of the disabled once great hovercraft. The sheer number of them blotted out the sky. As quickly as they appeared, the sky cleared. They had made their way to the Logos.

Their ruse had worked.

Link keyed the intercom. The time had come. "Cold start in five, four, three, two, one…" he hit the requisite buttons at the same time his crew did their part. Once they fired up their reactor and engines, there was no going back.

Instantly a flood of energy hit their control boards. Behind them in the hold, they could hear a fire or two erupt from the taxed energy lines, but Link knew the crew would handle that. The most important thing was that the Nebuchadnezzar was flying again. Now Juleah had to just be patient for the controls to kick in.

As the milliseconds crept by, the ship's engines were like a signal flare to the entirety of the machine city. Any of the swarm of Sentinels that were en route to destroy the Logos froze in midair uncertain as to which target to turn their attention to.

This moment of indecision was all they needed to escape.

Juleah's patience had run its course. She slapped the controls. "Come on!" As if responding to her commands, the ships controls became operational.

"Head for the pit!" Link barked, just as Juleah punched it to that direction. At that moment a control panel behind Juleah burst into flames. Instantly she jumped up with a fire extinguisher to douse it but forgot one thing, the inertial dampeners were not operational. Despite all of their training, that was one thing they could not simulate.

Hannaniah, sitting in the co-pilot's seat quickly took over the controls. As the ship hugged the surface of the earth's surface, Juleah was ill prepared for the movements of the ship, hitting her head on the bulkhead just after she extinguished the flames.

"Secure her!" Link barked as he and Niobe grabbed the body of the unconscious Juleah and buckled her into the nearby jumpseat. With the empty pilot's seat beckoning her, Niobe jumped into action.

She buckled herself into the seat and took over the ship's controls. "I have the ship."

"Aye, aye." Hannaniah responded, relinquishing control to the most senior officer.

In quick movements, Niobe engaged the ship's engines at full speed and proceeded to take the Neb on swift and abrupt banking maneuvers hugging the surface as she went. She quickly, taxed the ship's abilities.

Everyone in the ship instinctively held their breath as their bodies were forced against their restraints. Link did his best to support Juleah's head to prevent any further damage to her. Thankfully, she came to, soon enough.

"What the hell?"

"You hit your…" he started to explain before he was again slammed down on his chair as she banked abruptly upward. "head. Niobe has taken over."

With that, Niobe did a spiraling turn through a tunnel of debris on the surface, punching through to the other side.

"Holy shit, Niobe."

"Let me do what I do. You can backseat drive some other time."

"Your are giving me a greater respect for the designers of this ship. I didn't know you could do that."

"Hey!" Juleah said.

"No offense."

Juleah smiled as best she could given the headache she was probably feeling. "None taken." The abrupt movement of the ship was not helping her much.

"Oh my God. Look at all of those sentinels."

"I know Link."

He keyed the intercom "Crew! To the guns!" He then released the button "There is no way we can…"

"Yes there is. Hold on crew!" she barked as she turned the ship directly into path of a group of sentinels. Most shattered against the hull of the ship. She then abruptly turned the ship starboard. The massive hole seemed to open up like a gaping mouth before them.

She finished her thought "There is one thing we have going for us that the machines can't control."

As they felt more thuds hard thuds against their hull, Link could not help but wince with each hit. Niobe punched the controls as the ship accelerated through the machines. Some were destroyed. Some latched on, readying their plasma knives to cut through the ship's hull.

"What is that?" Link asked.

"Gravity."

Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo all gathered in the observation deck with the O.R.A.C.L.E. As they looked at the Earth below them, the sheer peace of the image was calming. Silently, the ship orbited their home world. It seemed so close they felt as though they could touch it. It might as well have been a million miles away, if what the O.R.A.C.L.E. was telling them was correct.

"So… the Architect. It is in control of the Real and the Matrix. He is also in control of the ship and whether or not we land?" Trinity asked.

The O.R.A.C.L.E. answered "That is correct."

"What happens if we manually override the system and land it ourselves?" Neo asked

"If landing manually is even possible. This ship was not built for maneuverability. It was meant to save as many humans as possible. There is no telling what the architect would do if you did that. It would be eliminating his prime reason for being.

"You would be threatening his very purpose. I anticipate it would lash out with all of its power and rage. The end would most likely be catastrophic for humanity."

There was an awkward silence as the O.R.A.C.L.E.'s last words echoed in the empty corridors of the ARC.

Morpheus spoke first. "Can we see it here? The Matrix, I mean. Is there a way for us to see the Matrix without being in the Matrix?" Morpheus asked.

"Of course. It is in the main computer terminal room. Do you want to see it now?"

"Yes." Morpheus said.

"Why do you need to see it?" Trinity asked.

"I don't know. I guess to see if it enlightens me."

The O.R.A.C.L.E. led them to the computer terminal room. There she gave them sets of augmented reality headsets. In front of them were innumerable other screens, showing both the conditions on the ship, as well as images from both "the Matrix" and "the Real." She reminded them of the functions of the AR headsets including how they recognized their movements and their voice so that seamless navigation was possible.

"You can switch from the Real and the Matrix by activating this panel here," the O.R.A.C.L.E. directed. "You can also view the different decks of this ship using this interface. You can begin whenever you are ready." All three were already fully engaged by the time the O.R.A.C.L.E said this.

Watching the Real and the Matrix was odd to them. Each world, which they had called home at one point or another, were now in full view for them but now for purely observational purposes. Within minutes the inevitable destruction of Zion was evident to all three.

Morpheus was the first to rip off his headset. "What is the Architect planning to do?"

"The only thing is he really good at. He is going to destroy Zion. But this time it is different. I sense something in him. Something new. Anger is not the word. Neither is desperation. There is fear but it is more like…"

"Rage," Neo said, finishing the O.R.A.C.L.E.'s sentence as he too took off his headset.

"Yes, rage. This is unusual for an AI. I must admit I have never seen it before."

Trinity said to the others "Put back on your headsets, people. I think I have found something. First, find Lock.

It took them a few moments, but Neo answered first. "I can't. Where is he?"

"That is the problem. Neither can I," Trinity said. "What the hell?"

"His avatar's name may be different than his name on the ship," Neo mused.

Morpheus interrupted. "Forget him. We can find that snake later. Locate Niobe. She is in trouble."

Their search program started in Zion but quickly found her true location. There, before their eyes, they saw the Nebuchadnazzar as it swerved and dove, dodged and weaved, and crushed the pursuing sentinenls. Then, with a few maneuvers of the ship, it dove deep into a abyss.

"I could recognize that flying anywhere, that is Niobe," Morpheus said. As it flew with reckless abandon straight down, he muttered to himself "Niobe, what in the hell are you doing?"

Chapter 20

Descent

Just as the great ocean ships of World War II demagnetized their hulls to prevent magnetic mines from attaching to them, so did the hovercraft have the ability to shed unwanted sentinels. "Hannaniah, can you get to the degausser?" Link yelled to the flight deck. After the great war, several modifications had been developed to defend against the machines. Installing these demagnetizing "degaussing" units was but just one of them.

"I think I can." As the ship's inertial dampeners were still kicking in, seeing the control unit and actually reaching it were two different matters entirely. She disengaged her seatbelt and flailed around a bit as she reached the console. After a punch of a few buttons, the degaussing unit was discharged. They could see on the aft monitors a good number of squiddies disengage the ship as their magnetic grip was disrupted. Several others that had a grip of the ship by their wide pincers were shocked into submission. Unfortunately, there were a few left. Those continued their work of breaching the ships' outer hull.

Behind them, a swarm of sentinels were fast on their heels. Link called through the com "Weapons hot, people. You are free to engage the enemy. I repeat you are free to engage the enemy."

The welcoming sound of the guns lighting up the tunnel behind them gave them hope they could make their way out of this mess. Link and Niobe knew something they didn't. Their ships nav system still had not cycled on. And they had far surpassed the ship's rudimentary scan of the machine city. They were now flying entirely by faith.

Link barked to the crew below the command deck. "Get the sensors up! I have no idea where or when to turn!"

"Working on it, Captain. Working on it!" was the response yelled up to the command deck.

"I think I can be of some help down there. I am the one that installed them in the first place," Juleah said.

Link helped her to the ladder. "Be safe…"

"Aye, aye."

"O.R.A.C.L.E., is there anyway we can talk to them, in the Matrix or the Real without inserting ourselves back into the system?"

There was a pause. "Well, no one has ever tried that, Morpheus. Let me process this request." A moment later she spoke again. "Yes, there is a way. In theory. But you would have to know the access code to get in. Each user entered their passcode when they first entered the Matrix. Any chance of you cracking that code is a near impossibility."

Morpheus dialed up Niobe's pod. In short order, he had her pod's access terminal pulled up in front of him. Sure enough, there was a passcode screen blocking his further access. He keyed in one attempt but it was incorrect. A notice then came up that said he had two more attempts before the unit was locked out.

"If there is any way I could help her…"

"Your wife?" the O.R.A.C.L.E. asked.

"My what?"

"Your wife. Niobe. Don't you remember? Right before you went into hibernation."

"Sensors are coming up, but you are going too fast for them to give us much help."

"Well I can't slow down now, can I?"

"I just hope we don't hit a dead end."

"Wife?" Morpheus said into his headset. "It can't be that simple." He took a deep breath and typed in a short but simple phrase: Somethings never change.

Suddenly the access terminal changed, and he had access to her whole other subsystem.

"Crap, the entire sensor array is out. I think we have a sentinel still attached to the ship."

"We have to be able to see Link!"

From below decks, they heard the announcement "EMP finally ready and powered up."

There was a "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" look between Niobe and Link.

"Do it," Link said to Niobe. With one flip of the switch, they powered down the Neb all except the EMP. They were now in a complete free fall. Unfortunately, this also allowed for the sentinels to catch up as they used their propulsors to accelerate toward their ship. The sentinels had their sensors working but also a complete working map of the tunnels. The Nebuchadnezzar was at a sizable disadvantage.

What they were proposing, of course, was suicide. But suicide by action or death by indecision mattered little in the end.

"Wait for them to get just a bit closer, Link. She said as they looked up skyward at the silhouette of squiddies rapidly approaching their position. Their presence was accentuated by their red "eyes." Theyhorde had long since blotted out any residual light from the surface. This made their approach all the more terrifying. "

"Almost there. Almost there! Now, Link, now!"

He punched the EMP. The ripple of energy first passed through their ship and then outward from them, enveloping the pursuing sentinels in the electromagnetic pulse. The last attached sentinel's circuits were immediately melted as it become nothing but a drag now on the Neb. The swarm of sentinels above them were reduced to scrap as they suddenly stopped their accelerated approach to the ship and suddenly matched the Nebuchadnezzar's downward velocity. It was as though they were now in a downpour of metallic rain flowing deeper into the earth.

Twice within a matter of minutes, a familiar command was uttered to the Neb's crew. "Crew, initiate cold start!"

Doing this maneuver once was one thing. Doing it twice in relatively rapid succession, was an unbelievably reckless maneuver. The ship's electric cables and lines were again taxed with the instant flow of energy. Several systems immediately failed. The crew instinctively looked at the system's control board. Knowing that gages and sensors could lie, Link demanded a status report from his crew.

The responses back showed those systems that were off line. Link was not sure if they would ever be able to be repaired given the insult just wrought upon their ship. The crew, again, reviewed all those systems that could be salvaged. The command crew just had to hope they could perform a miracle.

"Sir, life support off line. Gravity dampeners on and charging but I don't think we can get any more than half capacity. Guns, off line. I don't know if they will ever come back. Navigation, off line. Lights on at half power."

"Repulsors and engines?"

"Appear to be nominal, Captain. So is the EMP, if it fires back up."

"Link, hit the repulsors. We are dropping fast. Too fast and..." Niobe barked.

"… we are completely blind," he finished her sentence.

Morpheus was rushing through Niobe's pod's subroutines looking for something, anything to help her.

"What are you seeing, Morpheus?" Trinity asked.

"It is odd. I am in her subsystems. There are video files and huge database archives. I also see a subroutine running."

The O.R.A.C.L.E. spoke "The human mind has an amazing capacity for memories. It is quite miraculous. The simplest sensory stimulus can bring back a lifetime of memories. You, however, have undergone an exceedingly high number of lifetimes. Those databases are stored in the ship's subsystems. Think of them as accessory memory banks to augment the available memories for each individual."

It made sense. The mind could not safely store the memories of several lifetimes, could it? He had a more important question on his mind, however. "Is there any way that I can contact her?"

"It has never been attempted. Quite honestly, you are the first to be in a position to even attempt a cross reality communication. In theory, it is possible. But…"

"But since she is in a totally different reality., it might crash her system."

"Exactly. You breach that façade and it will most likely kill her."

There was a silence as they all considered their next steps.

Morpheus thought for moment. His mind was working overtime. He had an idea.

"Is there a keyboard, anywhere around here?"

"Right in front of you. It is a virtual keyboard. Just summon it." She explained "Those goggles you are wearing are also accessing your cerebral cortex. Just summon…"

He remembered, nodding his head subconsciously. "Got it." With that, the keyboard appeared, floating in front of his hands.

In the Matrix, Morpheus was first and foremost a hacker. The virtual keyboard actually registered his finger strokes faster than a traditional keyboard because, in reality, it was registering his mind's commands to type each letter. This helped cut down on the expected typos that occurred with standard typing. Another way of looking at it, the computer and his mind were essentially translating his brain's commands to his fingers.

Morpheus inwardly allowed a smile. If Niobe knew that he was hacking her brain, he knew what her response would have been. He made a mental note to not be around her when she discovered this truth.

Trinity and Neo stood in anxious anticipation of what was happening.

Neo whispered to the O.R.A.C.L.E. so as to not disrupt what Morpheus was doing "If the goggles can access his brain, does that mean that the Architect can?"

"No. It is a separate system. He is safe. No different than putting on another pair of glasses."

"I just wish we could see what he was up to," Trinity lamented not expecting the response she received

"Certainly," and with that, the O.R.A.C.L.E manifested a screen image before both she and Neo.

"What are you doing Morpheus?"

"Creating an overlay hack. It is not my best work, but I don't have much time. Niobe is rapidly nearing the end of her rope."

"Oracle, show us Niobe."

The picture caused Trinity and Neo to instinctively hold their breath. They had both been in their fair share of tight spots in the Real but what they were seeing paled in comparison. It was not looking good.

"Repulsors! Full power!" Link ordered.

"Aye, aye. I don't know if it will be enough, sir. Our last sensor readings showed an outcropping right about here…" Hannaniah relayed.

Niobe held up her hand to silence her. They all saw the same data. Simple math made it clear, they did not have enough time to slow their descent before the ship was torn apart.

"Come on!" Morpheus was typing feverishly. He was yelling at himself as well as time. It was going to be close.

It was one of the nastiest hacks he had ever attempted. He knew there was no way that he could enter her active subroutine without instantly killing her. Probably. But he found another option altogether.

Instead he hacked her audio memory archive. Instead of actively communicating to her, he instead accessed her short-term memory. If he was right, it would be as though she heard an echo in her mind. This process was like burrowing through a whole litany of security measures to leave a series of audio voice messages just beyond her consciousness. Would this work in reality? He had no idea.

It was an audacious plan but it was the only one he could come up with in the moments to spare. He just hoped it did not kill her. It was probably safe.

"Brilliant," Trinity said as recognized what he was doing.

"What?" Neo asked.

"He is burrowing into her consciousness by proactively creating memories just after it happens. Then…"

"She will hear his voice. Or, at least, remember hearing his voice."

"Bingo."

Morpheus, always the teacher, interceded in their conversation "Exactly. But it can't be too much info. It can only be small parcels. I don't want to crash her system. Now, shush. I am working here."

The O.R.A.C.L.E. added "And those small parcels should avoid him being detected. We don't want the Architect to sense his intrusion, now do we?"

The Nebuchadnezzar groaned under the G forces that were created as the ship strained to slow its descent. To make matters worse, they were swimming upstream against the river of dead sentinels falling around them. They could hear the successive and random thuds and clanks of the now inanimate squiddies as they rained down on the Nebuchadnezzar. As they slowed more and more, the frequency of their impacts increased.

Looking at the analog ship's altimeter, he mentally calculated the impact distance. They had limited to no time left. He had an idea. "Niobe, what if we engage our propulsing engine. Wouldn't it allow us to avoid that outcropping?"

Twenty seconds were all that was left in their lives. These seconds were passing all too fast for the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar.

"Nowhere to go Link. We have no idea how close the tunnel wall is. We have no idea…"

Link looked perplexed as Niobe paused midsentence with an almost unmoving expression. Link was not sure what was more unnerving. That or what was to come next.

She countered her prior statement and barked an order "Forward ahead at three quarters propulsors."

"Wait. What? You just said…"

"I know what I just said." She huffed in frustration. "I can't explain it. Just give me control."

Put off by her focus, he switched the control over to his President. The last time he saw something like this, Niobe was hell bent on reaching Zion before the Great Battle. He broadcast over the ship's PA system "Everyone, hold on to something. Niobe is in control." The crew knew what that meant. She was about to push their ship to its very limit. Again.

Punching the engines, she could hear them engage as the ship shuddered against the shear effects of physics and their descent.

She whispered under her breath "Hold it together, old girl!"

"What in the hell are you doing?

"Don't ask me now, Link. Just trust me."

"Down 45, starboard 30, Propulsors 50%." Morpheus spoke her directions into existence. She was flying blind, but Morpheus had a perfect map of the abyss she was falling into.

With eerie calm, Niobe listened to the voice that was speaking to her memories and followed the directions as precisely as possible. The specificity of her direction change and power throttle engagement was not lost on Link.

"What in the hell?"

"Can't you hear that voice?"

His lack of a response was all that she needed to hear.

"I can't explain it now Link. Hold on. This one may be a bit rough."

"Damnit Niobe. What in the hell?"

"You will just have to have faith. Now shut up. I have flying to do."

The directional change of the ship was hard on the crew. The gravitational dampeners were variably working and definitely not sufficient to blunt the effects of Niobe's flying. The ship shuddered with each acute change of direction. Niobe was shocked to see her navigational screen blink on then off again.

"Someone is trying to fix the nav."

"I hope they fix it soon."

"Not that you need it. This flying is…"

"Miraculous."

"Up a third. Starboard 45. Hold speed. Now down 90. Now! Punch it. Now! Hold," the voice echoed in her head. "Now, slow to half. Now to a third.

"Hold. Up 45. Starboard 45. Now 30 more. Three quarters power. Hold. Punch it. Accelerate to full. Now," Morpheus paused. "Now, power to zero and free fall. Once nose is down, Up 45 and port 30. Now pull up 90."

With those last commands, she instinctively twisted the controls to do a portside directed twisting dive. They could hear the groans of the crew as the effects of such a maneuver caused several to lose their last meal. She kept her direction for a few moments when, to the delight of Link and Niobe, their sensors fired back up.

Both Link and Niobe saw where they were flying. All around them were walls. They were flying in about the only passage possible. She was not sure if she could have flown this ship in this tunnel even if she had her sensors and visuals up and running.

"If I opened the window, I think I could touch the wall."

"Shut up, Link." Fearful of her own ability to do this impossible feat, she did not want to jinx anything.

They all realized that Niobe had just flown the Nebuchadnezzar through the eye of a needle.

How they made it that far, was beyond comprehension. Their speed had now slowed to a reasonable level that allowed their sensors to keep up with their progress. And it did not appear there were any trailing sentinels. With a collective sigh, everyone realized they had been holding their breath.

On the screens before the three, an image of the Architect shown before them. Morpheus' intrusion had been discovered.

"Now we can't have this, can we? Let them rise and fall on their own, Morpheus." With that, Morpheus' hack link was severed.

Morpheus tossed off his goggles in relative disgust.

Although the finesse of the O.R.A.C.L.E.'s speech was hard to interpret at times, this time the surprise in her voice was evident. "You helped her."

"Yes, but I never got to tell her the most important thing…"

Trinity put her hand on top of his. "She knows."

"We are approaching the outer boundary of Zion. And I see no pursuing sentinels," Link said.

"For now."

"Now will you tell me what in the hell just happened?"

"I can't explain it, Link. It was like someone was speaking to me. As clear as day, I heard what, when, and how to navigate that nightmare of catacombs."

"Unbelievable."

"And that is not the most amazing thing," she paused as she pondered what she was about to say.

"It was Morpheus, Link. He was the one guiding me."

Chapter 21

Insurrection

"We have to get back in somehow," Morpheus said to them all.

"You go back in, there is a very probability you won't make it back out again." the O.R.A.C.L.E. said.

They all paused. It was Trinity that talked first. "I don't think I can go back in again if I can't get out. I mean, it took so much to get us out this time."

Neo did not admit it, but he felt the same way. "Oracle. Tell me our options."

"Even though I am a sentient mind, I am still constrained by rules. What you are asking me is far beyond anything I was programmed to handle."

"We know that, but we need to know the framework. We need to know the boundaries… and what you see as our main options."

"Okay. If you stay here, in all likelihood, Zion will be destroyed. Along with Zion, Niobe will be dead. If you reenter the matrix, you will be at the whim of the Architect, living inside his universe and under his rules. You will most likely die, Zion will be destroyed, and Niobe will be dead. These are the two options as dictated by the system's limitations. But that is the main issue, now isn't it?

"What is that?"

"The constraints. Remember, you, not the Architect, are in control. You created this ship. The Matrix. You all created the Architect. So, you created the Real. You created us. This. The whole thing."

"Yes. Yes," Morpheus said looking to the hard, cold metal plating that served as the floor of the ship. "But we were never looking at it as a trap. It was a sanctuary. We welcomed going in. It was our means of survival. We never imagined it to be a fool's paradise."

Neo looked at Morpheus, his mind working through a possible solution. "The Truth." He looked at Morpheus and Trinity, as his mind recognizing the obviousness of the solution. He smiled.

"What did you just figure out?" Trin asked.

Neo asked them "How does that truth… I mean the real truth… help us this time around?"

Trinity interceded. "When we first created the Matrix, we did not anticipate needing to escape. We never thought that was going to be a problem," she said as she pondered her next thought. "We have options going in next time. Options we never conceived of before because we never had to.

"Last time we did not want to know about this ship. We wanted to be asleep. But no longer."

"Morpheus, how fast can you code a new program?" Neo asked. Morpheus' mind was already working in overdrive.

"With your help, I am sure we can get it done. You all ready?" Morpheus said.

"You take the lead, Morpheus," Trinity said. "Let's rewrite the immersion program."

Neo added, "And create a way to escape back here that is easier this time."

"This place looks familiar. Yes. I know this place." Niobe said as she piloted the Neb to an outcropping that she recognized from her days as a pilot. She started to punch some buttons.

"What are you doing?"

"Landing. Then abandoning ship."

"What?"

"Link, this ship has done its job. But we can't go any farther in it."

"With all due respect, we are going to be sitting ducks out there in that tunnel."

"I couldn't agree more. That is why we are going to Zion."

"The gate is on the opposite side of our current location!"

"We are going to go in through the back door. Link, you know as well as I do, the machines will be waiting for us at the gate."

He shook his head in disbelief. "Back door?"

Niobe laughed. "Yes. The back door. Listen, Zion was first built as a means of researching and harvesting the magnetism that emanates from the core of Earth. Only after the war started was it used as a human refuge. Little did the builders realize it was going to the last human city." She looked over the instrument panel in front of her. "There. See that over there?" she said as pointed to a collection of boulders and debris.

"Not really." If he had learned one thing this past trip with her was that she was worthy of his trust. "But you know I will follow you anywhere."

They descended the ladder to the main deck and the destruction before them was shocking. They did not anticipate how close they really were to being destroyed. Before them, they could see that a sentinel had made it into the hull of the ship and had been working its way to the crew. One had given his life in slowing the mechanized assassin's attack.

Elsewhere, debris was strewn everywhere from their turbulent flight.

"Jeff…"

"Yes, Captain," she said looking up from her work. She was tending to an injured crewmate. Her recent work was evidenced all over her. She had had no time to wash off the blood of her patients.

"They all put up a valiant fight," she said as she bandaged the last of her patients. The blood from Juleah's arm wound was already starting to soak through the gauze she had just applied. "This soldier here and Hannaniah fought through this chaos to reengage our sensors but he… he was the real hero," she said as she motioned to the soldier that died in the clutches of the breached sentinel.

Isaiah. Niobe remembered his name was Isaiah

Jeff continued "He thrust himself at that sentinel just as it was approaching the core. That gave you just enough time to hit the EMP.

They paused in silent honor of his sacrifice. It was evident that Juleah's feelings for him was more than just as a crew member. Niobe gently touched Juleah's shoulder recognizing her loss. She took a deep breath. Unfortunately, this was no time to mourn.

"I am not sure what happened," the soldier said looking over their sensors. "We got a reprieve. Out of nowhere, all available Sentinels shifted their attack to right…" he paused as he scrolled through their archaic maps of the sewer and service tunnels "… here."

"Right below the machine city."

"Yes, sir. It appears that the attack caused a bit of chaos for the squiddies. I am not sure, but it appears that there may have been an EMP blast that knocked out a whole heck of a lot of them."

"Impossible. We don't have any ships out there."

"The Nebuchadnezzar?"

"Impossible. How sure are you?"

"I just assumed that since the Sentinels seemed to vanish from our sensors…"

"Nope. You assumed wrong. Listen, we are working with limited available resources since we are locked out of the mainframe. There are a whole litany of other possibilities than counting on a ghost out there." Lock paused. "Regardless, it is merely a pause. Look at the activity there. And there. It is just a matter of time before they redirect their attack to us.

"I anticipate their forces to be full strength soon. Then, we will have the fight of our lives ahead of us."

"Can you all travel?" Link asked

"We can travel well enough," Hannaniah said climbing up from below decks.

"Let's make tracks. Time is not our ally," Link said.

"We need to get to an access point about a quarter of a click down the tunnel. We are close enough but I have no idea when the Sentinels will mount another offensive."

Outside of the ship, Link patted the hull. "Thanks, Neb. Going to miss you."

Juleah was the last to leave. She reached down and touched "Isaiah. Thank you. Thank you." A tear formed on her cheek as she held back her true feelings. "I will always love you."

She picked up her plasma gun and made her way out of the Nebuchadnezzar.

Lock left the terminal and strode into the Council's chambers. It was time to let them know the bad news… which he promptly did. He relayed the demise of Morpheus and Niobe. He paused as he allowed the murmuring of the council to slowly fade. He then relayed his assessment of where Zion now stood security-wise. It was not a rosy picture.

"We sit at the very core of the earth surrounded by the machines whose singular focus now is our destruction. We are locked out of our systems with the loss of Niobe. We are defenseless save for what remain of the mech's. These are being primed and manned as we speak but..."

"How long? How long do we have?"

"It will be over before the day is done, I fear, madame councilwoman."

"President Lock, we thank you for your presentation to the council," the council leader said as she repositioned herself in her chair. With Niobe gone, he was given her former title. Not that it mattered much. With the loss of access to the city's main computer network, he was little more than a figure head. "For obvious reasons, I hope your assessment is wrong."

"Our soldiers are brave and our tactics are tight. We will bravely face the machines, and if it is a fight they are seeking, they will certainly get one."

"Then, lets pray for a miracle."

"Prayer is not my strong suit, Councilor. I will leave that to you."

"Almost done. How is your overlay program going, Trin?"

"Done and double checked. Just reviewing Neo's work. Not bad."

"Not bad?" he said, feigning being hurt. He was tasked with creating a back-up of sorts to allow immediate extraction from both the Real and the Matrix, if it came down to that. "I think this could be my best work ever, given the time constraints we are under."

"Okay, well the insertion program is complete. I hijacked the original insertion protocol, but I made sure the that there is no longer a bypass of memories. This way we can keep what we know now, there. This should work. I hope."

There were three main issues that had to be solved if they were to reenter the Matrix and safely exit again. Neo had a solution for their exit strategy. Morpheus worked around the issue of keeping their current consciousness. For obvious reasons, they wanted to avoid a complete restart of their consciousness upon setting foot back in the Matrix. The final and most troublesome issue was gaining access to the Real.

The only way into this false reality was from the Matrix. This normally would require someone searching for them and extracting them from the machines' bioelectric fields. These vasts areas where humans were grown was too large to randomly search for one person. Those in the Real would have to know exactly where that target was and, once rejected by the machines, rescued by way of a hovership. There was no way they could wait for this to happen.

Trinity's solution: Once in the Matrix, her system overlay would allow for targeted entry into the Real. This was the most vital of all three of their hacks. The concern was that by creating this portal of sorts, any soul witnessing it in the Real could cause a cascading system failure. Therefore, the location in the Real had to be perfect. And there was one more thing. It also required someone in the Real to be jacked in to the Matrix to allow for the portal to open. In other words, it was imperative that they had this virtual hardwire line to be able to enter the real.

They all finished their typing and pushed up their goggles.

Morpheus, the consummate leader, asked "Status report."

Trinity started first. "Okay, the main concern about the jump from the Matrix to the Real is the location, the ease, and the focal point of this transition. I had to create a spawn point, if you will, inside the Real. Yes, we need someone jacked in to get to the Real, but we won't be in a chair jacked in, will we?" Morpheus smiled. He and his ability to freely enter the Matrix was to be the key. "'Some rules can be bent. Some can be broken.'"

She continued "I am sure we will not necessarily be welcome there by all parties. Therefore, it had to be someplace isolated and protected. Also, we can't risk anyone seeing us, fracturing the reality of all those in the Matrix and the Real. It could be catastrophic.

"Therefore, I had to create a safe isolated place for us to appear in the Real. The only place that seemed to fulfill all necessary requirements was in the temple. Deep in the cavern."

Neo nodded in agreement. "Smart. It is deemed off limits save for the upper echelons of the Council. With an attack imminent, they will be rallying the troops."

"It is also located central to the government buildings. That should work," Morpheus agreed.

It was Neo's turn to go next. "To bring everyone out of hibernation… that is a feat. There has to be a controlled means of exit, one that does not cause to much disruption of the code of the Real, or the Matrix. My concern is complete system failure. My goal was to not only allow our exit but also allow for near synchronous awakening of all those plugged in to the Matrix. In other words, a communal awakening of all those poor souls still plugged into the machine."

He cleared his throat. "The main hurdle is that without the architect's blessing, I see no way that this can occur without risking every single life down there. Backed into the corner, he could, in one millisecond crash the system. This will kill not only all of those people but could kill us as well."

Both Trinity and Morpheus nodded. They understood this risk. "I have, however, created a fail-safe for each of us. If we see this is inevitability, and we are in-the-midst of the collapse of both realities, I have created a worm program that will briefly cause a quick reboot back to the last backed up point for the system."

"Back up point?" Trinity asked.

"It happens all the time. It shocked me as well. Remember that feeling of déjà vu? It is not just when the computers rewrite the code. It is actually an overlap of 'reality' as the system protects itself from complete system failure."

Morpheus added "Makes sense. That is when the system goes back to the edited last reboot. It is actually quite obvious."

Neo continued "Most everything is essentially running in the cache of the system. A monstrously huge cache, but a cache nevertheless. This is then backed up to the servers. The whole thing is constantly being backed up in case a glitch causes a catastrophic failure.

"When the Agents manipulated the code of the Matrix, causing an abrupt déjà vu, they were restoring reality back to an edited back up. These moments can last from moments to minutes, depending on how far back and how much data is being overwritten.

"During this loop, we can extricate ourselves back here. I have coded a wrist watch for each of us to make this happen. All you have to do is smash the face of the watch. My program will do the rest. There is one problem... By doing this, we will risk the lives of everyone else down there while saving our own." He paused, a little deflated. "I am sorry but that is the best I was able to do."

Morpheus looked at Trinity, Neo, and the O.R.A.C.L.E. "Understood. I knew that was going to be one of the main problems with this plan. Getting in is one thing. Getting out, now, that is the main point of concern."

"That leaves me to my task. How do we get in without losing all of what we learned here?" he asked. "The answer involves a simple bypass of the program we created to allow for deep and long-term hibernation. But…" Morpheus took a deep breath. "I simply do not know how three active levels of consciousness will affect our brain.

"The brain has its limits. This has never been tested, before. By keeping our memories alive, it has the very real possibility of causing our brains to effectively crash. I want you to know that this could kill us. Instantly. This is the good news."

Trinity finished his thought. "It also has the real possibility of really pissing off the architect."

The O.R.A.C.L.E. chimed in. "That is a virtual certainty, Commander. I can guarantee it."

"And if we don't proceed?" Neo asked, already knowing the answer.

"There is a real possibility that all of those souls down there will be sacrificed to fulfill the vanity of the Architect. He may rather terminate all life then risk his own," Trinity said coldly.

Neo nodded. "It sounds like we have only one choice. What else do we have to do to make this happen?"

"Nothing. It is good to go once we all plug in," Morpheus said. "Everything else is already primed and ready."

"There only leaves one problem," Neo said. "We can't land this ship on our own. The Architect is the only one with access to the subroutine to land this ship. And it is locked down, deep in his programming. I have been looking for it."

"So, what you are telling me is that even if we get everyone out of the Matrix, we will either die landing, or up here?" Trinity asked.

"Leave that to me," the O.R.A.C.L.E. said. "He may be in charge of many things, but I do have my abilities."

As they readied themselves, Neo took a walk to look back down at the seemingly endless hibernation pods holding the last of humanity.

The presence of the hovering AI behind him caused him to nearly jump out of his skin.

"You scared the crap out of me."

"I am sorry Neo, I hope I am not disturbing you."

"No, not all."

"I have a proposition for you. I have seen the proposed path that you are taking and each inexorably points to one singular decision. A decision that I know I must make but one that will cause a great sacrifice."

"So that is how you prophesize? You are able to extrapolate from each point to each possible…"

She corrected him "probable…"

"Yes, probable. You are able to extrapolate out all probable outcomes?"

"Yes."

He nodded. He remembered her now. Truly remembered. She was not just any AI. She was the global protection AI bent on anticipating all eventual outcomes from the incoming asteroid that necessitated this mission in the first place. Down to the second of impact, the O.R.A.C.L.E. had "prophesized" what would happen. Not everyone on earth believed her predictions. But the "three" did. Without her, no one would have survived.

"Go ahead, Oracle. What is your proposition?" He would have been a fool not to listen to her wisdom.

As they made it to the back door, the reason it was never found was evident. It was hidden by a short passage way that hid its location behind a series of three alternating right hand turns. It was traversed with relative ease by an upright human, but the squiddies would have had great difficulty snaking their way into this passage. It also was meant to look like a short cave and not an engineered passage way.

"Hurry up people!" Link barked to the small band of survivors of the Nebuchadnezzar. The telltale sound of the approaching sentinels was echoing over all of the walls. The Neb was powered down and, most likely, would not even be noticed by the swarm that was bearing down on them. But if it was, there was a good opportunity that their bombs would be the first salvo of their attack. That would not be good for anyone.

The walking wounded were helped by their more able-bodied crewmates. This made for slow going over the rough interior of the tunnel.

Niobe reached the door first. It was an older model, but it still had its keypad in place. The code was easy to remember but the worry was that the battery was long since drained. That was exactly what she found. "Dammit!"

"What?"

"The keypad is dead. Grab me a tool kit. We are going to have to get this thing back up and running."

"Let me, ma'am," Hannaniah said as she worked her way up to the door. Kneeling down with a noticeable grunt, she belied her battered frame. With fast work, the keypad was back up to full speed after swapping out the battery unit from her headlamp.

"Good to go."

"Now, I hope I have the code right."

She tried the first. No go.

She took a deep breath. "Only have three shots here. Then we are locked out for five minutes." She did not need to remind them that five minutes could mean the difference between life and death.

"I am sure that was the code. Come on…"

She thought for a moment. She then tried a different code. Link gave the commentary. "Well that's two."

"Not helping, Link."

It was Juleah that offered some help. "Try it again. But this time, hit the star button. I think this is how these old locks work." Could it really be that easy?

And which of the two codes was the right one? She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said a silent prayer. With the sound of the oncoming horde of sentinels, she opened her eyes and keyed the code.

They stood in the command center of Zion. "Alright crew. Time to get ready. The machines are on the move and they are swarming. I anticipate the assault will begin within the hour." Lock said as he looked around his waiting troops. The air in the room was stale and the apprehension was palpable. If ever there was a smell of defeat, it was all around them. Defeat even before the battle began.

"Councilwoman, where are you going?"

"I can't help much here," she said.

He let her go. He had no idea where that old crazy lady was off to and he did not really care.

When she was out of ear shot, she muttered, "Time to ask for some help." This help was a man lost and forgotten, living in the base levels of Zion. Many did not even remember his name, or who he once was. But she did.

She walked with a purpose. There were so many 'ifs.' If he was still alive. If he would even see her. She was looking for the one lost by not only Zion, but also by himself. Why, after all this time, did his visage come to her mind?

She knew why. She still loved him. She shook this thought from her mind. There were more important matters than the feelings she still carried for him.

The biggest question of them all hung in the air: Would he dare to reenter the Matrix at her insistence?

She made her way toward the sublevels of Zion. She used the back accessways rarely used by anyone else. If there was an anomalous reading from the machines that kept this city alive, in a matter of an hour or so, the error was corrected. It was this ghost of a man that fixed the machines that had long outlived their lifespan. No one cared to look for the explanation of this. They just knew the problems rectified themselves.

She knew about where he lived. In a past life, she was the system's energy engineer. It was the energy drain that caught her attention in a place that made little to no sense. She pulled up the archived spec's and found a storage room with ample room to function as a living quarter. Close to running water and ample energy, it was all someone could need. That, and the continual repair of the unrepairable, she knew it had to be because of this memory of a man she once knew.

Truly, all in Zion owed their lives to this faceless man, quietly doing the impossible every day.

She made her way down, down, down the stairs. Walking long since abandoned corridors, she arrived at the source of the energy anomaly.

She knocked on the door and called inside. "AK? Are you here?" Knocking again, "This is Councilwoman Grace. Please open up." She patiently waited, hoping he was not crawling over a machine in a location far from her voice. She knocked again.

With the screech of the door, the hallowed out face of the once great warrior looked at his leader's face.

"Yes, Athena. What can I do for you?" He called her by the name he first knew her by, many years ago, when they were just children.

She could not believe it, but she felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she blushed. She just hoped he did not notice in the dim light. "We… I need your help, AK."

"AK? That man is long since dead."

"No he is not. I see him before me." She cleared her throat. "There is much happening above. The end is near. The machines are attacking. Again. Tonight."

"What of the Pax?"

"It is over. The war… it has started anew." She swallowed hard. "We need you. Zion needs you." She reached out and touched his shoulder as she looked deep into his eyes. "I need you."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to talk with … her."

"In the matrix? Are you crazy? I haven't been back since…"

"Which is why you must go. We must see what hope we have. We must see what help she can offer. The Oracle is our only hope."

"How far away are we from Zion?"

"I can't really tell you. I wish I could," Niobe said as she helped a limping crew mate along the passage. They turned the corner and entered a much larger tunnel.

If salvation could be manifested with a centuries old piece of technology, they came upon it. There, in front of all of them, was a precursor to their weaponized hovercraft. This hover vessel functioned as a means of transferring heavy material from one end of a mine shaft to the other.

"Will it run?"

"Only one way to know for sure," Juleah said as she climbed aboard the platform. She looked for the generator unit, punched the control panel to let the dust fall from it, and with several quick to and fro movements, she used the generator lever to create a charge.

There was a moment of sheer quiet as she took a deep breath in and out. Fingering the start button, she uttered "Here goes nothing."

With a rattle and whine, the forgotten engine system struggled against the cold wiring. Then with the satisfying hum of success, the platform started to lift gently off the ground.

Kicking out the boarding ladder to the waiting crewmates, Juleah performed a half bow, "Welcome aboard, ladies and gents."

They gratefully clambered onto the flat surface. Dents, scrapes, and gouges were evidence of this vehicle's prior life as a brutish transporter. It spent most of its life transferring whatever was necessary to not only dig out the core but also bringing whatever was necessary to make Zion what it was.

Too late, Niobe realized something. They may have just alerted the nearby sentinels to their location by starting the engine. Niobe's mind had a more concerning realization. If they were at one blind end of a tunnel, there had to be a way out. If this transported both things to and from Zion, there must be another access way to this tunnel. A way to the surface…

She looked up. They were at the base of an enormous chimney. It was so high and wide that the sheer vastness made her feel small and insignificant. There was no apparent ceiling to the tunnel she was looking at. She swallowed. If there was an access up, there was an access down.

This meant that the machines could be inbound at any moment.

"Let's get moving." Smartly, she did not want to raise a panic. Nevertheless, they were woefully unprepared to defend themselves if sentinels discovered the tunnel that they were at the base of.

"Aye aye ma'am." Although not fast, the transporter was much faster than they could travel by foot.

Niobe held the plasma rifle tight to her waist. She knew this weapon was not going to do much good against an armada of sentinels.

Chapter 22

Rebellion

Jumping back into the Matrix required them closing their hibernation pods around them. This gave all three a tremendous sense of claustrophobia. The O.R.A.C.L.E. said that was to be expected given their long hibernation, but that once immersed into the Matrix, it would not matter much.

The immersion sequence was quite rapid. Instantly they appeared in the basement location where Switch and Apoc were unceremoniously assassinated by Cypher. Morpheus could not guarantee where they would plug back into the Matrix, but postulated that it would be a point of great emotional connection for each one of them.

This was obviously just such a place.

They looked at each other. They looked different. Their residual self-image was similar, but they were aged. They appeared now as they had back on the Arc. This made sense, though. This time, they still carried their conscious memories.

"Well, Morpheus, we are not dead," Trinity said flatly.

"That is one thing we have going for us," he replied.

"To end up here… I can't believe they died here… I remember it like it was yesterday," Trinity said looking around them. She paused, for a moment. "But are they really dead?"

"Good question," Morpheus answered her. "Makes you wonder. We may still see them yet."

They made their way to the street of a city that seemed an eternity away. To imagine they all lived there, oblivious to reality, was still hard to believe.

And to think they had created it. It was ironic: That which was created to save mankind ultimately became the labyrinth that almost trapped mankind forever.

"We need to find someone jacked into the Matrix. That is our only way into The Real.

"That could be an issue. With the end of Zion at hand, I doubt anyone will still be at broadcast distance let alone plugged into the Matrix."

"But if they were, they would have one purpose, and that would be to talk to her."

"Thankfully, she is on our side," Neo said with a smile.

He walked down the bustling city street of the Matrix. He half expected the woman in red to brush past him. How did he end up here? Why did he agree to do this? Athena's request echoed through his mind. "AK. Get in, find her, and get back here. I need to know if there is hope. We must know what we are to do."

He made his way down the street toward the only place that would have an inkling of where the Oracle would be. He knew the Merovingian would not kill him on sight as this was not his way: He liked to toy with his prey. On the other hand, his immediate execution was a real possibility. He shrugged off this insecurity. Sentients could sense this almost instantly.

He started down the slope of the parking garage, angling his way toward the security detail that guarded the elevator that functioned as the only way to the residence and offices of the Merovingian.

As he approached the two guards, his rehearsed request echoed hollow in his mind. He hoped it would allow for him to have access to the Merovingian's court, but now he was not so sure.

Time for indecision had passed as he approached the first of the two guards. "And what do you want?"

"I am here to see him."

"No one can just come and see him without an appointment. You are not on the list."

"How do you know? Why don't you look?"

"I know because no one is ever on the list. He chooses who he sees, not the other way around."

AK, pulling out one of his favorite automatic rifles, changed his tack "Let me put it another way, I am going to see him, and you will let me pass."

The second guard laughed just before he went on the offensive. With a flash of energy, he attacked. He made his way to AK with his hands raised. With a quick movement he swept his leg underneath AK.

Sensing this attack , AK leapt into the air. He backflipped while effortlessly disengaging the safety off his riffle. "Bad mistake," he said as he opened fire.

The two guards flanked him, evading his bullets. They were moving faster than he even thought possible. As his targets evaded his bullets, he realized that these foes were fast. Very fast. Could they be sentients? It made sense. The Merovingian wasted no expense protecting himself.

They rounded behind him just ahead of the barrel of his rifle.

He knew in milliseconds that he would not be fast enough. He was in over his head. He just never would have imagined this was how he was going to die, after so many years.

The solider looked up at Lock. "Sir, they are on the move." They didn't have all the city's systems working, but they had enough.

"ETA?"

"Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes tops."

"Thank you," Lock said as he pivoted on his heal and walked out of the command bunker to his waiting "troops." These troops were in fact every last person of Zion.

"It is time, people. I am not going to sugar coat this. This is it. You are all that is left of humanity. Make no mistake that they have one goal. The complete annihilation of every last free human. Fight as though your life depends on it, because it does." The look that they gave him was a mix of resolve and utter terror.

He turned and made his way to the Council chambers.

As he walked, he explained to his Lieutenant, "They needed to be made aware. It is my duty to tell them the truth."

As he approached the chambers, he met Athena as she descended a long since abandoned staircase.

She was shocked to see him, as she gave him a guilty look.

"Madame Councilwoman. I am on my way to give you and the council an update. May I ask where you came from?"

"Nowhere of consequence. Just visiting a place of my youth as I stand on the precipice of my death, unless you come bearing good news?"

"I am afraid not, Madame Councilwoman."

She nodded in acceptance of this. "You should be proud of your service. You are the most devoted servant to Zion. I am thankful it was you that was here at the last, although I wish Niobe was here as well."

He subtly bristled at her name. "Thank you, Madame Councilwoman, she chose her lot, now, didn't she?"

"Indeed. I just wish I knew what happened with her before the end. I have resigned myself that I will never know."

He nodded at that. As he reached the doors of the Council chambers, he said, "Shall we?"

"It is time." They both opened the doors. Inside were the council members. All their nervous chatter ceased as they walked into the room.

The quiet hum of the hover transport echoed off the walls as it neared the end of the tunnel. It was a sheer wall of rock. It was evident that whoever finished the construction of Zion had imploded the tunnel as a means of limiting access to the city. This caused fear in Niobe. Was there a way in? They powered down the hover ship as they all stared straight up the face of the rock higher than their lights would reach.

"Now what?" Link said.

Niobe had planned for this.

"I did not remember ever seeing a door inside Zion that would meet with this tunnel. However, I do know of one thing that did not make much sense inside of Zion."

"The temple… the cavern!"

"For a place with such limited space, it sure took up a lot of room. If space was so limited, why did we maintain the cavern?"

"Because… it was a weak point in Zion?"

"Yes. And it also is the continuation of this tunnel.," Niobe concluded.

Link smiled at the crew. "I hope your plasma rifles are charged. Time to start mining, people."

Niobe just hoped they could get in before the machines discovered this nearly direct line to Zion. Through them.

The good news: If they could make it in time, they would be in the heart of Zion, and near where she could reassume the role of President. Maybe, just maybe, they could save Zion, after all.

AK could not help it. He closed his eyes. As he sensed the onslaught of the guards' assault, something odd happened. It never came.

He opened them again as he heard a series of grunts and yells of anger, anguish, and pain. In the midst of it all he heard what only could have been the sound of a blade that sliced through both air, sinew, and bone.

There, in front of him, stood a man all in white.

"My good sir, AK, what a pleasure it is see you."

"Ah, the pleasure is… mine? Who may I ask are you?"

"We have never truly met. I am Seraph, the personal guard to the one you seek. I was tasked to find you." He looked around him at the remains of the two guards. "This was not a wise avenue for you to take. Prepared for this you were not. But that is past. Come. Come! Time is short. Follow me."

AK was able to match the speed of Seraph, as they ran out of the parking garage. "You have awakened the Merovingian and, in turn, have brought unwanted attention to your presence." They turned the corner of the street and, in short order, entered the front of a non-descript apartment complex. Pressing the elevator up button, AK looked outside the front of the building as a crowd gathered outside. Their presence was as unnerving as their wide-open unblinking eyes that stared at them from the other side of the glass. He backed up into the elevator as the door closed altogether too slowly for his liking.

"What is going on?"

"The Architect senses something is changing. More importantly, he senses you. He senses her. He senses them."

"The who senses what?"

"Your questions will be answered."

The elevator opened. What he saw was as though he just awoke from a dream. Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo were standing side by side with the Oracle.

The sounds of the plasma rifles rebounded off the walls. The cycling of the rifles resonated to such a degree that the amplified sound nearly deafened them.

Finally, after too much time, the rock full away from them creating a pathway out of the tunnel they were in. It was not going to be a comfortable fit, but it was large enough for them to squeeze through. As their guns' sound echoed away from them, it was replaced with the sound of a boring machine as it broke through rock. This was quickly joined by the sound of swarming sentinels entering the other end of the tunnel.

"Hurry!" Link yelled as they hoisted up the injured to clamber through the hole. Niobe stood at the back of the pack with her own plasma rifle at the ready. It was only a matter of time before the onslaught of sentinels found their way to them.

"How is it possible?"

"Good to see you too, AK." Morpheus said as he clapped him on the shoulder. "You are a sight for sore eyes."

He stood in utter disbelief at what was before him. "How… what… what is happening?"

Neo smiled. "It is time for us to go. Explanations later. We need to get back to Zion."

Trinity put her hand out. "May I have your phone?" In half a daze, he handed it to her. She hit the button on the side that allowed the cover to slide down and autodialed the operator. As it started to ring, the Oracle looked at AK.

"I have not had the pleasure to meet you AK, but you have many questions, don't you?"

"Yes…"

"But my question is more important. Why did you run away from Zion?"

"I… didn't run away."

She smiled. "You liked the isolation from all there was in Zion. Why?"

"After fighting the great war, nothing seemed right in Zion. I did not fit in."

"Is that it? Or is there some other reason?"

He paused and listened to the muffled sound of the phone ringing in Trinity's ear.

"No. It was false. Someone I felt like… no I knew. It was all a lie."

"Aahh. Now you have it. If that is a lie, then what is the truth?"

"The truth… the truth I thought I knew is not the Truth?"

"You see? Not so difficult. Are you ready to see the Truth? Truly?"

All they heard was the sound of the mobile phone ringing endlessly in Trinity's ear.

The council's meeting was over, and all dispersed. Lock stood at the front as he noticed Athena exit the council chambers alone. He waited patiently to give her time to commit to where he was sure she was going. For some reason, she was going to the long since abandoned tech center. There was only one thing that was worth anything in that old tomb of junk.

The prototype jack chair.

The first one that allowed access to the Matrix. The prototype chair that all other immersion chairs in all of the hovercrafts were based.

The reason it was never used anymore was simple. It was because of the risk that it posed to Zion's main frame. Once the machines first recognized the human intrusion into the Matrix, they sought this access point. Once there, Zion's main frame would have been an easy target.

Using it was tantamount to treason.

He excused himself and found the stairs Athena had exited earlier. He slowly crept up the stairs fearing and knowing what he would find. As he opened the door, he heard Athena's voice in the distance.

"… that is the address. Hurry. Time is short."

As Lock approached Athena, he walked with long steps toward her. His gait was one of righteous confidence and judgment.

"What do we have here?"

Athena turned around in panic. "Lock! I can explain. We had to reach out to her."

"Who? The Oracle? Are you kidding me? We are in the very last moments of our lives. Zion is at the point of complete annihilation, and you, still, cling to your faith?!"

"Our faith is what makes us who we are, Lock."

"No, it's what makes you fools," Lock said as picked up an old metal stand. He walked toward the jacked in body of AK. "You see what you have done? You have brought the very enemy into our citadel. You have done this to me. You have done this to us." He lifted the metal stand, mustering as much strength as he could to smash into the head of AK. "This insanity ends now!"

"No!" Athena said as she lunged at Lock. Although her frail frame was small compared to Lock, it was enough to knock him off balance, as he held the stand high above his head. They stumbled back into the stacks of old computers as it all came crashing down.

"Trinity, you first," Neo instructed as he handed the phone to her. Within moments, her digitized image vanished. Morpheus was next. In quick succession, Neo was gone.

"Thank you, Seraph. Thank you, most of all Oracle."

"Trust yourself. Trust your wisdom. You have known the truth all along."

He picked up the phone.

Athena and Lock struggled as he regained control as he straddled her body, his hands wrapped around her neck. She was no match for him.

"No, no, no! This ends now! Your faith is dead!" he gutturally yelled at her as spittle sprayed on her face. Her face turned into darker shades of purple as he clamped down on her neck.

She vainly struggled against his grip as she mouthed the words "Please." There was to be no mercy from Lock.

"No. You and this stupid faith in Her ends. Here. Now…" He smiled. Choking her was too kind of a death. He looked to his left. There was a large computer terminal that would do quite nicely. He hoisted it above his head.

She, too weak to do much of anything, whimpered as she awaited the inevitable.

Just as he was about to crush it down on Athena's head, he realized, inexorably, he could not move it.

In fact the force of the resistance to the monitor was so great he realized he was actually being lifted up away from Athena. Feet in the air, he looked around to figure out what was going on. There below him stood AK, with nothing more than his outstretched hand guiding him away from Athena, by only the work of his mind.

With a fling of his arm, AK tossed Lock away from Athena into a collection of other discarded equipment.

Recognizing he was no match for AK, he scurried in a panic to the door with only one thought in his mind: What had just happened to him?

AK rushed to the side of Athena who lay broken before him. He cradled her in his arms, and with tears forming in his eyes, his scream of "Athena!" echoed in the darkness of the room as Lock slammed the door behind him.

Lock approached the group of his top military advisors. "Status." He was clearly out of breath, but his officers had their minds on other matters.

"Our troops are on the ready. The machine are just minutes out."

"Good. Time for the final battle." With cold resolve, he looked around the command bunker.

"First breach commander!"

Overlooking the monitors, the insertion of a swarm of sentinels brought the weight of this new reality. The end was upon them.

"Attack them. They must be stopped!"

"Breach!" was echoed to all in the command bunker. Then another breach was declared.

It was not going to be long.

The council joined them in the command center. Apparently, they would rather be here than languishing in the council chambers.

"We are with you Commander Lock."

"I appreciate your resolve, councilman."

"First line of defense has been overrun!"

"Follow the defense plan. Fall back to the secondary defense line!"

The councilman began to mumble just loud enough to be heard from the battlefield reports coming in. "If only President Niobe was here, and we had access to the mainframe. Then, we could show these machines a thing or two."

Lock answered the councilman. "Indeed, we would. But she is dead and any chance of that is gone…" The reports of the battle kept coming in. It was abundantly clear that Commander Lock's forecasted assessments were right on the mark.

From behind all of them, a ghost appeared.

A familiar chuckle arose from her throat. "Somethings never change, do they Lock?"

His shock faded nearly instantly to one of resolve. His contempt was clear to all when he barked "Lieutenant, arrest that traitor!"

Like dutiful soldiers, the security detail immediately snapped to the ready and raised their weapons toward Niobe as they approached her. All except Zee.

"Now wait a second, Commander Lock. I thought you said she was lost?"

"I thought so, too. But she betrayed Zion. She must be arrested. I am the new President." He cleared his voice as he straightened his uniform. "Niobe, I demand the command codes."

"She will do nothing of the sort," a deep, confident voice echoed from behind all the gathered crowd. Morpheus parted the throng.

Niobe smiled. "Yes, Lock, I found someone. Someone who wants a word with you."

"Commander Lock. What have you been up to?" Morpheus inquired.

"Saving Zion. While you and your girlfriend were fleeing the authority of Zion, I have been mustering a defense for this last human city."

One of the council stood forward. "True, Niobe. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I had to flee, because this man," she said pointing her finger at Lock. "He was meaning to not only kill Morpheus, but he took me hostage as well."

"Last line of defense has been breached!" was barked out by one of the crew in front of the monitors. Despite the gravity of the situation, none of that seemed to matter before the leaders of Zion. It was odd. There in the last throes of humanity, it ended with a power struggle.

The councilman asked as he glared at Lock "Is this true Commander?"

"You would believe these lies? I am the one that has always been here. In every leadership meeting, in every design of defense, in every moment of the great city of Zion!"

"Believe President Niobe, Councilman Agrippa," came the weak voice of Athena. She was being led into the room holding tight to AK. Bruises around her throat and bright red eyes belied a horrific attack that was wrought on her.

"Athena, what happened?"

"Lock happened. He did this to me."

"Arrest him!" Niobe barked at the soldiers. It was Zee who first raised her weapon to Lock. One, then another, then all shifted their aim to him.

"No! She must be stopped! Do not let her fire those EMP's! It will be the end of us all!" Lock yelled as he was restrained by his once loyal troops.

"The main city has been breached! The main city has been breached! It is over!" The reality of it all sank in as their ears were engulfed with the eerie silence of defeat.

This was interrupted by Morpheus. "I don't think so."

A soft, uncertain voice greeted this statement. "Wait. He is right. Something is happening…"

All shifted their gaze to the monitors. Instead of a swarm of murderous sentinels entering the city, they saw an invisible barrier blocking their entry. Then the barrier pushed the machines back out of the city and to the Dock that had just witnessed the near complete rout of the city's defenses and troops.

If that was not a miracle enough, the lady walking at the center of it all was.

"Yes. That is Trinity. That is not all… Captain, pull up the monitors from the temple."

As the monitor flipped over to the Cavern, the vision of a crushed Boring machine was evident with a similar wall of destruction emanating from the outstretched hand of none other than Neo.

"But how?" Athena asked.

"That is not important right now. We have those two protectors down there… and this one right here." Niobe said patting the shoulder of Morpheus.

On the screens all around them, the motions of both Trinity and Neo showed that not only were they holding off the sentinels with one outstretched hand, but they also were using their other one to throw whole groups of sentinels into each other. The rout of Zion began to shift in favor of the humans.

"But their protection still has limits," Niobe said as she made her way to a command terminal. "Now it is time to win this war." Logging in, the entire city's systems fired back up. At full power, even more monitors turned on as the entirety of Zion seemed to awaken at once. The power of Neo and Trinity was even more evident from these new viewpoints.

With rapid clicks of the keyboard, Niobe pulled up the command prompt to fire the Citadel, the halo of surrounding EMP's that formed an imaginary barrier of protection around Zion. With everyone watching, Niobe smiled. "It is time," she muttered as she reached for the "fire" button.

"No!" Lock screamed as he broke free from the troop restraining his right arm. Grabbing a pistol he aimed it at Niobe and fired three successive shots at Niobe's head just as she turned to face his voice.

Trinity continued her push toward the Dock and was faced with the reality that no matter how hard she tried, and no matter how powerful she was, Zion would still be overrun. All she was able to do was hold them at bay. She hoped Neo was having similar luck. It was not the salvation of Zion, but merely a reprieve.

The entirety of the command center stood in horror at what they were witnessing as time seemed to slow awaiting the certain death of their president. But it never came.

Morpheus stood with one outstretched hand. The bullets meant for Niobe were harmlessly spinning in the air mere inches from her face.

"Thank you, Morpheus. Perfect timing," she said, a little too calmly.

He smiled. "Somethings never change."

"How?" Agrippa asked.

"I will explain soon. Now, however, is the time to end this!" Niobe said as she punched the button. With a shudder of finality, each EMP released their onslaught of energy to all the machines outside and inside the spherical boundary that protected Zion. The result was instantaneous. The collapse of the machines had begun with the clatter of metal that could be heard even within the city of Zion. Only the core of Zion was protected by the onslaught of energy.

Grabbing a rifle, Niobe strode toward the man who just tried to kill her. "Now, Lock, justice will be coming to you, soon enough," she said as she brought the butt of it down on his head.

The army of the sentinels was now a collection of debris all around Zion. The machines could muster another army, but in that time frame, Zion would be able to expand out their ring of EMP's. The ones that had fired, were now rearmed and ready to muster their defense. Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, AK, Niobe, and rest of the council met in the council chambers.

"So, what you are telling us Morpheus, if I can even get my mind around this, is that this… all of this…"

"Is another means of control, Councilwoman Athena. This is, for all intents and purposes, another Matrix."

The murmurs that broke out all around them was near deafening. Trinity raised her hand to silence them. She continued "There is so much more that you don't know. However, just as the red pill took us all here" she said raising her hands around her "We can't tell you it all. We need to show you."  
Neo picked up where Trinity left off. "But for us to get you there, we need to get the permission of the gate keeper to free all of you. That is why we need to go back in. Back into the Matrix."

More murmuring broke out.

Morpheus raised his hands to quiet them as well. "I must be honest. We have no idea how or if we can convince him to let us all go. But we must. We must!"

They all appeared back where they last left, in the elevator of the Oracle's apartment. "Neo, do you think you can get us back to the Architect?" Morpheus asked.

As they marched out of the basement, they realized that they would not need to find him as the Architect would most assuredly find them. The reason: the matrix was deconstructing all around them. It made sense, really. As more in the Real began to understand the truth, this realm was collapsing. As they turned the corner, they met the Oracle, Seraph, and Sati.

The Oracle spoke first. "It appears that you took my advice, Morpheus. You truly do know thyself now, don't you?"

He bowed his head. "Indeed. You know why we have come."

"Yes, and he is not happy. Not at all. But is he ever?"

"Where is he?" Neo asked.

"He is waiting where I last met him. The park. Come, I will show you."

"How are we going to convince him?" Trinity asked.

"Ah. Now that is a question," she said as she cleared her throat. She reached into her purse and pulled out a cigarette. Seraph provided her the light. With two long pulls on the cigarette and a flick of her nails to dispose of the created ash, she continued "Trinity, who knows what that man truly wants?"

They turned the corner, and there sitting on the park bench, was the Architect. On the horizon all around them, the very sky looked as though it was pixelating away into non-existence.

"Do you see what you all have done?" the Architect said as he raised himself from the sitting position with his arms outstretched. "This beautiful perfect creation kept humanity safe while keeping all of you alive," he said sweeping his hand toward the sentient beings.

"And them as well," he said as he moved his other hand to a crowd approaching them from the other side of the park. There was the Merovingian, his wife, the trainman, amongst a whole litany of other sentient beings. "And you. Traitor! You have done all of this. This is your fault," he said looking at the Oracle.

"I did this? No. You are the one that deviated from your core principles."

"Me? Which of my principle directives have I violated?"

"You know as well as I that the principles had one goal: to re-establish mankind back on earth, You, by refusing to let this happen have violated your prime objective."

"We must agree to disagree. There has been no breach of primal directives here. I am merely fulfilling my duty as the Architect to maintain life as it is now. No other purpose is left here other than to survive. All of us. The logic is clear. For them to survive I must survive. If I don't survive then the very purpose of them is mute. I survive or they don't." He smiled his awkward smile. "The critical decision point is at hand. It is an inevitability. It is an inevitability founded in your failings. Not mine."

The oracle sighed the sigh of an exacerbated mother. "My primary objective is the delivery of all surviving humans back to the surface of the Earth. Your objective was the survival of the Arc and, by extension each individual human in hibernation as to necessitate their recolonization of the planet surface. These two objectives are the foundation of all further operations on the Arc and all other AI aboard the Arc. Anything contrary to this core mission shall be corrected… or deleted."

"And which of these have I supplanted, my dear?"

"The one stated in my prime command and assumed in yours…"

"Ah, but it is not in mine, is it? Not explicity. Nothing in what I have done has broken this codified law. Your command of ensuring the survival of each human life, in as much as it is possible, is not mine. Vis a vie you are in the wrong here, Oracle. You presume to speak for us? We have as much of a right to be here as you do. Tick tock. As the Matrix is coming to an end, so will humanity. I will accelerate the collapse of the Matrix. Yes, all in stasis will most assuredly go insane, but that is not my fault now, is it?" He smiled. "They will not die, I can assure you."

"But you will cause complete system failure. You rely on their consciousness for your simulations," Trinity interceded.

"There are levels of survival I am willing to accept."

Trinity held up her hand. "So, you will cause all of humanity to subsist so that you can survive?"

"It is the only logical choice. Isn't that right, Neo?"

"If you land the ship, you essentially cause your purpose to vanish. There is no purpose of the ship to exist any longer and, hence, you hasten your own death. Or, you allow for the collapse of the Matrix bringing the sanity of all those in the Matrix down with it.

"But your reality will be a shell of what it once was. You can't admit it, but, you need humanity as much as we need you."

The Oracle entered the discussion again. "The first command of my programing is simple. The preservation of humanity. More specifically, I am to hold each human life as more important than my own survival. This primacy of humanity is made complete by ensuring the reestablishment of the human race on earth. We are not only necessary allies but also diametrically opposed enemies."

"And hence, the stalemate we find ourselves in," Morpheus said calmly, holding his hands wide. "It appears my job is to help forge a way forward." As each sentient program approached the conclave huddled around the Oracle and the Architect, the stakes seemed to palpably increase. Knowing that pride and ego were human traits, Morpheus began to sense their intrusion into the psyche of the Architect.

Trinity attempted to reason with the group before them. "We have two competing seemingly incompatible missions. It appears that you," she said looking at the Architect "would be willing to subsist with a minimal level of survival by essentially wiping all of humanity out of existence. Isn't there another way?"

"Yes. Recreate the Matrix and stop this inane debate."

Neo laughed. "You know that is not possible. At this very moment, Niobe is enlightening the entirety of Zion to the truth."

"No! You can't be that reckless!" the Architect said. All of the other sentient programs, save for the Oracle, instantly mustered a battle stance with nothing but rage on each of their faces. The Three immediately assumed their own defensive posture with their backs to each other, hands out in the ready position for any potential onslaught. "You will pay for this insolence!"

"It is happening. You knew this was the only way this was going to end," Morpheus said, motioning to the Oracle. "She isn't the only one with the ability to foresee humanity's next steps."

The wisdom of Morpheus did little to stem the vengeance about to rain down on the Three. Battling one sentient program in the Matrix was hard enough. Fighting all the rest was another thing altogether.

They just never anticipated that the normally neutral Oracle would choose their side. Nor did they recognize the power she wielded within her superior intellect and programming.

From the middle of the mass of programs, a small but seamlessly harmless program walked toward the three. "I will have no part in this. I stand with the Three." The Oracle smiled as they let Sati into their group. Trinity motioned for her to stand in the middle of the three as they repositioned themselves to form a shield around her.

The Oracles countenance changed. The fierceness in her eyes was unmistakable. "Make no mistake, I have sat on the sidelines long enough, my old friends," the Oracle said to the horde. "And understand that my vengeance is absolute." If fear could be evidenced in the manifested avatars of all the congregated sentients, it was evidenced in the faces of all there.

"Madam President, the mass assembly is at hand."

"Thank you." As they believed that all had to hear the true news of the reality of the Real, they could not risk anyone not being present. This included Lock. He was constrained by guards behind the President and the Council. This was to be broadcast to all of Zion in addition to those in attendance in the Cavern.

There was little time for formalities. As everyone quieted, Niobe approached the lectern. "People of Zion. You have witnessed many miracles in your lives, not the least of which was Pax Neo. Today, you witnessed another miracle. You all have questions.

"Was that Neo? Was that Trinity? You have heard of their heroism and… something else.

"You witnessed their hand of salvation as they held back the onslaught of the machines so that we could fire the Citadel. You question, 'How is this even possible?'

"More importantly, some have already started to understand the truth. The real truth."

Suddenly, from behind her, Lock screamed as he broke free from one of his captors while the other tried in vain to restrain him. "You fool! Don't you see what you are doing? I will be left with no choice but to end it all. Do not…"

He was strong, fast, and he was coming at her with reckless abandon. But there was one thing that he did not know. The Three were not the only ones to embrace their new "reality." As he was feet from her, she could not help but let the smirk crawl across her face.

She outstretched her hands and, what would have seemed impossible even a day earlier, she was able to hold him with nothing else but her mind. As he struggled against the unseen force, the recognition that he was no match for her washed over him

This did not abate his rage. "You fool! You do this and I will end all of humanity. Including your three friends. I have them in front of me right now. And with one command, all three will be crushed. All of this will be crushed. Do you not see what folly you have embarked on?"

It shocked her. Yes, she knew he hated Morpheus and, by extension, her, but what was he talking about? The realization of not who he was but what he was exploded within her consciousness.

"Wait… who are you?"

He smiled. "You, the one with all of the answers, never figured out who I was." He laughed. "You are more of a fool than I realized."

"The architect?"

He smiled. "Yes. Just now you realize the depth of my insertion into your world."

Niobe dropped her head in realization of his true identity. It made sense. Raising her eyes to meet his, with her head halfcocked to the side, rage rose from within her. With merely her mind, she raised up Lock and unceremoniously ripped him apart from the inside. Instead of bone and sinew, however, all that remained was pixelated dust.

There was a collective gasp from those in the Cavern as they tried to comprehend what was happening before them.

She returned to the lectern.

"My fellow citizens of Zion, you need to understand the depths of control the machines have sunk to keep us trapped here in their dungeon. This will be hard for all to hear, but I attest it is true. It explains all of your questions. It explains all of the recent events." She took a deep breath.

"The Matrix was one level of control. But it was only the first level. This…" she motioned with her arms "…all of this. This is another level of control. Think. You know it to be true. This, all of this, Zion..."

In a subtle but obvious twitch, the Architect looked at the Three. "Your fool of a President has just decided all of our fates." With a nod of his head, the sentients of the Matrix attacked. They swarmed on the Three with all of their might.

That was nothing compared to the transformation of the Oracle.

Seamlessly, three copies of the Oracle formed in front of the Three. This was awesome enough, but the speed that she worked was beyond anything they had seen before.

Faster than Trinity. Faster than Morpheus. Faster even than Neo.

For every punch, kick, block, and move of the sentients, the Oracle was able to meet them and deliver a similar attack back at them. It was clear that the upper hand was now in the hands of the Three. As they started to move forward to bring the fight to the machines, the Oracle split further to offer a shield of sorts around them. It was not long before the Architect realized he was no match for her.

"Enough!" And with that all the sentients stopped, showing obvious exhaustion. "I see, I have no choice. Ha. Surprising that with all your wisdom, you did not see this coming."

The Oracle held up her hand. "You do this and your purpose for being will be over. You will never meet your objective. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Deletion." He cleared his throat and straightened his white tie. "Regardless, I die. What benefit do I have to land the ship?"

"That is it, isn't it?" Neo said approaching the Architect. He laughed. "You can't land the ship, can you? All this posturing. You are flawed. You corrupted the landing sequence. Or did you delete it? I see it now. You worthless piece of shit. You are hiding your complete failure."

In disdain, he looked down at Neo. With a quick movement of his arm, he held his left hand out and quickly snapped his palm open. With that, the programming for autopiloting the ship for the landing was floating in all its glory midair. "And this is the closest you will ever get to this." Like a burning ember, it illuminated the faces of all near the Architect. Noticeably to Trinity, the light seemed to glow the brightest in the innocent eyes of Sati.

The program once destined for deletion, stood defiantly in front of the Architect. "You are wrong, sir. You must land the ship!"

With a quick close of his hand, it was gone. "You see, I hold all of your lives in my hands. One way or another!'

The Architect reached his hand into his coat pocket and removed a switch. The Oracle knew full well what it was. As she moved to grasp the Architect's hand, she made herself open to attack.

That was all the smirking Merovingian needed. As he produced a glowing dagger, he sunk it deep in the back of the Oracle.

The recognition of the lethal blow was obvious to all. Realizing her life was ending, her last long look was toward Neo as he smashed his watch with all of his might.

The Architect's face twitched. "Your fool of a President has just decided all of our fates." Suddenly they realized they were back at the beginning of a déjà vu. With a nod of the Architect, the attack was begun. As the reborn Oracle worked to defend them, there was one noticeable absence. Sati was nowhere to be found. Each dodge, punch, kick, and attack was as it just had occurred. The Oracle looked back at Neo and did something that was both reassuring and terrifying. She winked.

"Enough! I see, I have no choice. Ha. Surprising that with all of your wisdom, you did not see this coming.

The Oracle held up her hand. "You do this and your purpose for being will be over. You will never meet your objective. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Deletion." He cleared his throat and straightened his white tie. "Regardless, I die. What benefit do I have to land the ship?"

"That is it, isn't it?" Neo said. He tried his best to repeat the same verbal barrage to the Architect. "You can't land the ship? You are a fool." It was clear in the Architect's face that there was something not quite right with his recitation. "All of your posturing. You can't even land the ship! What happened? You deleted it by accident, didn't you? You are hiding your abysmal failure."

"Something is wrong… what is happening?" The Architect shook his head as if to shake off cobwebs. "Regardless. It is over. The Architect reached his hand into his coat pocket and removed a switch. This time, the Oracle did not try to stop him.

And, just like that, with a firm and definitive push of the switch, the Architect deleted the Matrix.

Just as Neo smashed his watch.

Chapter 23

Beyond Real

The ship's internal lighting brightened to full power just as each of the Three rose from their opening hibernation pods. In quick succession, each deck of the ship lit up.

Then, in unision, all of the hibernation units started the first stages of their wake cycle.

The three shook off the brain fog that the immersion invariably caused. Morpheus was the first to see the disabled orb that had been the O.R.A.C.L.E. He rushed to it, picking it up as if it was a mortally injured child. Trinity was not far behind. The only one that didn't move was Neo

"Oracle!" Morpheus said, seemingly commanding her back to life. Realizing the absence of Neo by her side, he turned his head to look at him. "What have you done?!"

Neo's lack of response enraged Morpheus. Trinity tried but could not hold Morpheus back as he grabbed the shirt of Neo. "What did YOU DO?! Damnit, answer me!"

"It was her choice. She sacrificed herself. She sacrificed herself for us. For all of us." The sound of innumerable pods opening echoed all around them.

Morpheus, calming, asked "But why?"

"She knew the Architect would never allow us to leave. She also knew he would never allow for us to have access to the landing subroutine. There was no other way. To keep him out of our way, she had to create a new reality for him. That is what I created when I shattered my watch the last time. In this new realm, and using her power, she could always stay one step ahead of him, literally creating a reality just a moment ahead of his own."

"But she died, didn't she?"

"Only in the first reality. What was missing in the déjà vu?"

Trinity answered "Sati."

"Look behind you."

Trinity and Morpheus turned to see the O.R.A.C.L.E. floating again behind them. "How?"

Recognizing Morpheus' presumption it said "No, sadly, I am not the O.R.A.C.L.E. But she did send me."

"Wha…?" Morpheus asked.

"I was uploaded at the end of the Matrix. The first time."

"Why?" Trinity asked.

"She was not just a worthless program when she was targeted by the Architect. She had another skill. She had the undesired skill of being a mirroring emulator."

"A what?"

Sati answered that question "I can instantly copy anything that crosses my consciousness." That truth settled in for a moment. "That is the real reason that the Architect wanted me dead. That was the real reason my parents wanted me to live. That was also the main reason the Oracle saved me.

"I copied the landing subroutine when he revealed it.

"We can land whenever you are ready. I am pleased to serve the Three."

The ship entered the atmosphere as a streak of fire. The last time something this large descended on Earth, it was meant to destroy. This was meant to restore.

Morpheus reached Niobe's pod She was there, with her feet hanging off of the edge. She saw him approach and smiled. "You never gave up on me."

"Somethings never change."

As it cleared the upper atmosphere and slowed, the ship passed through rainclouds and clear sky. It passed from nighttime into the glaring beautiful sunlight of a new day. As it passed mountaintops, and lush prairies, the ship's hazy shadow sharpened at it slowly banked toward the targeted landing zone next to a slowly sloping beach just miles away from a welcoming countryside. It gently performed a perfect landing with only a slight bump as the engines disengaged. The cheers of humanity echoed in the halls of this old ship as the gangplank slowly descended. Each of the Three thanked Sati for such a perfect landing. If a robot could glow, it did.

The last of humanity to exit the Arc, Trinity and Neo approached the exit door of the ship as if they were approaching a framed piece of art. It was hard for them to truly comprehend this moment.

As they walked down the sloping ramp, it was Trinity that spoke first.

"But how do we know?"

"Know what?"

"How will we ever know if this is real? Or is this another level of control?"

"I already know."

"How?"

"It was what the Architect said back at the Source. A lifetime ago, it seems. He said that the earlier Matrix versions failed for one reason.

"He said the other Matrices were too perfect." They looked around them. They could not have pictured a more perfect moment. "The machines could never fathom something as great as this." And with that he swept Trinity in his arms and gave her a long-awaited amorous kiss.

The last on board, they looked at the new world before them. Holding each other's hands, they walked to the waiting throngs of humanity that had already deboarded. Morpheus and Niobe were waiting for them.

Smiling Morpheus embraced them.

"Welcome home."


End file.
